Publications by authors named "Kaiji Shen"

The cleavage of C-S bonds represents a crucial step in fossil fuel refinement to remove organosulfur impurities. Efforts are required to identify alternatives that can replace the energy-intensive hydrodesulfurization process currently in use. In this context, we have developed a series of bis-thiolato-ligated Cr complexes supported by the L ligand (L = 2,2'-bipyridine-6,6'-diyl(bis(1,1-diphenylethanethiolate), one of them displaying desulfurization of one thiolate of the ligand under reducing and acidic conditions at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure.

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Commonly, iron(ii) and copper(i) complexes bind dioxygen (O2) and then activate O2 through a reductive reaction pathway. There is, however, significant interest in low temperature oxygenation with O2 without the use of a sacrificial reductant. Here, earth-abundant metal complexes (FeII, CoII, NiII and CuII) coordinated by two different tetra-dentate mono-carbon bridged bis-phenanthroline ligands, (1,10-Phen)2-2,2'-CR1R2, where R1 = n-butyl and R2 = n-butyl or H were synthesized.

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Chiral β-aryl-α,β-unsaturated amino alcohols were synthesized via a Pd-catalyzed asymmetric allylic amination of 4-aryl-1,3-dioxolan-2-one using planar chiral 1,2-disubstituted ferrocene-based phosphinooxazolines as ligands. Under the optimized reaction conditions, a series of substrates were examined and the products were obtained in good to excellent yields (up to 92%) and enantioselectivities (up to 98% ee) under mild reaction conditions. The desired products were determined to be of (R)-configuration and could subsequently be transformed into compounds with interesting biological activity using simple transformations.

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