News-The Xiao Group


	News:

*The group is supporting the democratic revolution in Spain and Angela and Bárbara attended a rally in Liverpool.

*Jiwu's review on how to make the Heck reaction regioselective has appeared in Acc. Chem. Res. This Account summarises the efforts made by several past and present group members over the past one decade or so. Thanks go to Prof Lijing Xu, Prof Jun Mo, Dr Shifang Liu, Dr Zeyn Hyder, Dr Matthew McConville and Paul Colbon. A big thanks goes to Dr Jon Iggo for his help and insight over the years.

* Congratulations to Yunfei for passing his viva and wish him the best of luck in his new position in Edinburgh.

* The group bid a fond farewell to Jiwu after five productive years. Many thanks for all his contributions to the group.

* The group welcomes Xiaowei Zhou who is a visiting Ph D. student from the group of Prof. Yang at Xi'an Jiaotong University.

* A warm welcome to Xiaofeng for re-joining the group as a Research Associate.

* Congratulations to Chao for receiving the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad 2010. Chaoqun, XiaoFeng and Jun Mo received the same award in 2008, 2006 and 2004, respectively.

* Paul's paper "Direct Acylation of Aryl Chlorides with Aldehydes by Palladium−Pyrrolidine Co-catalysis" is one of the top three most accessed Organic Letters articles during the third quarter of 2010.

* Jiwu's paper "Direct Synthesis of 1-Indanones via Pd-Catalyzed Olefination and Ethylene Glycol-Promoted Aldol-Type Annulation Cascade" has been published in Organic letters.

* Check the group album to see our "Secret Santa" picture.

* Jiwu's paper "Hydrogen-Bonding-Promoted Oxidative Addition and Regioselective Arylation of Olefins with Aryl Chlorides" has appeared in J. Am. Chem. Soc.

* A warm welcome to Dinesh for joining us to carry out his PhD studies. Dinesh obtained his MChem degree from Kingston University, London.

* Matt's paper "Synthesis of oxygen heterocycles by regioselective Heck reaction" has been published in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry.

* Chao's paper "A Versatile Catalyst for Reductive Amination by Transfer Hydrogenation" has been published in Angewandte Chemie.

* Barbara's paper "Bifunctional Catalysis: Direct Reductive Amination of Aliphatic Ketones with an Iridium-Phosphate Catalyst" has been published in the Special Issue "Bifunctional Catalysis" of Molecules

* A warm welcome to Prof Yan for joining us as a visiting professor from Sun Yat-sen University.

* A warm welcome to Jonathan for joining us as a Postdoctoral researcher. Jonathan obtained his Ph. D. from Durham University.

* Congratulations to Barbara for winning the top poster prize at the first North West Organic Chemistry in Manchester >>>

* A recent Angew. Chem. Highlights featured Chaoqun and Barbara’s JACS paper “Metal−Brønsted Acid Cooperative Catalysis for Asymmetric Reductive Amination”. This paper was also highlighted by SYNFACT.

* Paul and Jiwu's paper "Direct Acylation of Aryl Chlorides with Aldehydes by Palladium−Pyrrolidine Co-catalysis" has been published in Organic Letters.

* Congratulations to Matthew for successfully passing his Ph. D. viva.Please check our Group Album for photos.

* Matthew’s Feature Article on Heck reaction has appeared on Synthesis.

* Many congratulations to Chaoqun for successfully passing his Ph. D. viva.

* A warm welcome to Angela for joining us as a Ph. D. student. Angela was graduated from the University of Oviedo in Spain.

* Welcome to Steven for joining the group as a Ph. D. student. Steven received his M. Chem. from the University of Manchester.

* Matthew's talk "Regioselective Heck Reactions for the Synthesis of Oxygen Heterocycles" at the RSC Dalton Meeting for the North West Division won the prize for "Best Talk" - Many Congratulations!

* Chao's paper "pH-Regulated Asymmetric Transfer Hydrogenation of Quinolines in Water" has been published in Angewandte Chemie. This paper has been recently highlighted by SYNFACT.

* Jiwu's paper "[2.2]Paracyclophane-based monophosphine ligand for palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions of aryl chlorides" has been published in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry.

* Matthew's talk "Regioselective Heck Reactions for the Synthesis of Oxygen Heterocycles" at the RSC Dalton Meeting for the North West Division won the prize for "Best Talk" - Many Congratulations!

* Matthew’s paper on Regioselective Heck Vinylation of Electron-Rich Olefins has been published in the Journal of Organic Chemistry.

* Congratulations to Chaoqun for recieving the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad 2008. XiaoFeng and Jun Mo received the same award in 2006 and 2004 respectively.

* Having successfully defended her PhD thesis, Zeyn is now a Doctor – Many congratulations!>>>

* Prof Xiao was awarded the UK Prize for Process Chemistry Research 2008 at the 26th SCI Process Development Symposium at Cambridge.

* Paul who recieved his M. Chem. from The University of Liverpool has joined our group as a Ph. D. student.

* Chaoqun's Chiral Counteranion-Aided Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Acyclic Imines has been published in the Journal of American Chemical Society. This paper has recently been highlighted by SYNFACT.

* Chaoqun's Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Cyclic Imines with an Ionic Cp*Rh(III) Catalyst has been published in the Journal of American Chemical Society. This paper has been highlighted by SYNFACT.

* Chao and Xiaofeng's review on Asymmetric Transfer Hydrogenation has been published in Chemistry - An Asain Journal.

* Jiwu's Acylation of Aryl Bromides with Aldehydes has been published in the Journal of American Chemical Society. This paper has been highlighted by SYNFACT.

* Xiaofeng and JianKe's Mechanistic Study on ATH in Water has been published in Chemistry-A European Journal.

* Zeyn's Hydrogen-Bond-Directed Catalysis has been published in Chemistry-A European Journal.

* Xiaofeng's iridium catalysis in water is on the cover of the inaugural issue of ChemSusChem.

* Jiwu's oxygen and base free Oxidative Heck Reaction has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

This paper has been highlighted by SYNFACTS for "its important insights".

* Xiaofeng's Rh and Ir catalyzed ATH in water has been published in Chemistry-A European Journal.

* Our Heck reaction in ionic liquids is 3rd most cited paper published in Organometallics in the past 10 years.

* "Asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of ketones with a polymer-supported chiral diamine" is one of the "Top -50 most cited articles" from 2004 to 2007 in Tetrahedron Letters.

* "Oxazaphospholidine-oxide as an Efficient ortho-Directing Group for the Diastereoselective Deprotonation of Ferrocene" in Organic Letters are among the most cited papers in 2006.

* Congradulations to Xiaofeng for recieving the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad 2006. Jun Mo recieved the same award in 2004.

* Highlights in Organic Chemistry Portal:

	Organic Synthesis in Water
	Accelerated asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of aromatic ketones in water
	On Water and in Air: Fast and Highly Chemoselective Transfer Hydrogenation of Aldehydes with Iridium Catalysts
	The Heck Reaction of Electron-Rich Olefins with Regiocontrol by Hydrogen-Bond Donors
	Ionic Liquid-Promoted, Highly Regioselective Heck Arylation of Electron-Rich Olefins by Aryl Halides
	Pd-mBDPP-Catalyzed Regioselective Internal Arylation of Electron-Rich Olefins by Aryl Halides
	Ferrocenyl Monophosphine Ligands: Synthesis and Applications in the Suzuki-Miyaura Coupling of Aryl Chlorides