Weici Xu

2020-11-17

Weici Xu was born in Fujian Province, China. He received his bachelor degree (2011) and Ph.D. degree (2016) in the Department of Chemistry, Xiamen University (supervisor : Prof. Eric Meggers & Prof. Lei Gong). After postdoctoral studies in the laboratories of Prof. Xinqiang Fang in Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter and Prof. Daniel Seidel in University of Florida, he joined the Department of Chemistry at the Southern University of Science and Technology as Research Assistant Professor in 2020. He focuses on asymmetric catalysis, especially the design and application of new chiral catalysts or ligands.

Journal Papers

  1. Xu, W.; Arieno, M.; Löw, H.; Huang, K.; Xie, X.; Cruchter, T.; Ma, Q.; Xi, J.; Huang, B.; Wiest, O.*; Gong, L. *; Meggers, E. * Metal-templated design: enantioselective hydrogen-bond-driven catalysis requiring only parts-per-million catalyst loading. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016138, 8774–8780.
  2. Xu, W.; Shen, X; Ma, Q; Gong, L.*; Meggers, E.*Restricted conformation of a hydrogen-bond mediated catalyst enables the highly efficient enantioselective construction of an all-carbon quaternary s ACS Catal. 2016, 6, 7641−7646.
  3. Zhang, G.+; Xu, W. +; Liu, J.; Das, D. K.; Yang, S.; Perveen, S.; Zhang, H.; Li, X.; Fang, X.* Enantioselective intermolecular all-carbon [4+2] annulation via N-heterocyclic carbene organocatalysis. Commun. 2017, 53, 13336–13339. (+Equal contribution).
  4. Xu, W.; Li, Y.; Liu, R.; Yang,  S.; Liu, J.;  Fang, X.* Kinetic resolution of 2,2-disubstituted-1,3-diketones via carbene catalysis.  Organic Chemistry Frontiers 2019, 6, 290-298.
  5. Zhao, Z; Bagdi, P. R.; Yang, S.; Liu, J.; Xu, W.* and Fang, X.* Stereodivergent access to enantioenriched epoxy alcohols with three stereogenic centers via ruthenium-catalyzed transfer hydrogenation, Lett.201921, 5491-5494.
  6. Chen, L.-A.; Xu, W.; Huang, B.; Ma, J.; Wang, L.; Xi, J.; Harms, K.; Gong, L.*; Meggers, E.* Asymmetric catalysis with an inert chiral-at-metal iridium complex. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 10598–10601.
  7. Chen, L.-A.; Tang, X.; Xi, J.; Xu, W.; Gong, L.*; Meggers, E.*Chiral-at-metal octahedral iridium catalyst for the asymmetric construction of an all-carbon quaternary stereocenter. Chem., In. Ed. 2013, 52, 14021–14025.
  8. Anwar, M.; Yang, S.;Xu, W.; Liu, J.; Perveen, S.; Kong, X.; Zehra, S. T. and Fang, X.* Carbene-catalyzed asymmetric Friedel-Crafts alkylation-annulation sequence and rapid synthesis of indole-fused polycyclic alkaloids, Communications Chemistry 2019, DOI: 10.1038/s42004-019-0188-2.
  9. Liu, J.; Vasamsetty,; Anwar, M.; Yang,S.*; Xu, W.; Liu, J.; Nagaraju, S. and Fang, X.* Organocatalyzed kinetic resolution of a-functionalized ketones: the malonate unit leads the way, ACS Catal. 202010, 2882-2893.
  10. Zhu, ; Odagi, M.; Supantanapong, N.; Xu, W.; Saame, J.; Kirm, H. U.; Abboud, K. A.; Leito, I. and SeidelD.* Modular design of chiral conjugate-base-stabilized carboxylic acids: catalytic enantioselective [4 + 2] cycloadditions of acetals. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 15252–15258.

Research

Research interests:

  • Design, synthesisand application of new chiral catalysts and ligands
  • Enantioselective reactions via organocatalysis and transition metal catalysis