Organometallics; Asymmetric Catalysis; Total Synthesis of Natural Products

Organic Chemistry; Organic Spectroscopy

Dr. Chen Xu has made innovative achievements in the design and application of new chiral economic catalysts and the synthesis of complex natural products. Dr. Xu put forward the idea of regulating the catalyst’s polarizability through “donor–acceptor” electronic effects by introducing both electron-donating and electron-withdrawing groups on to the catalysts. This results in: 1) more polarizable π systems, thus facilitating non-covalent π interactions between substrates and catalysts; 2) more polarizable transition metals, thus facilitating the activation of softer Lewis bases. The originality of her work lies in applying the principle that the polarizability affects the reactivity and selectivity to the development of catalysts. Based on this core conceptualization, she successfully solved three long-standing challenges in the field of catalysis. The major achievements are summarized as follows:

• By introducing a polarizable π system into the chiral skeleton of natural cinchona alkaloids, she established novel “N–π” bifunctional catalysis modes for asymmetric inductions and chiral recognitions. Based on this, she realized asymmetric dihydroxylation (AD)-based kinetic resolutions (Nat. Commun. 2022, 13, 3276; Org. Lett. 2022, 24, 8774) and desymmetrizations (ACS Catal. 2023, 13, 9745) that were largely unsolved in the past, and for the first time answered the fundamental question why traditional Sharpless AD cannot be used for effective chiral recognitions.
• By developing “donor–acceptor” platinum catalysts, she realized highly efficient intramolecular and intermolecular hydroalkoxylation and hydroamination of various unactivated alkenes ( Nat. Commun. 2021, 12, 1953). Most importantly, she demonstrated for the first time that “donor–acceptor” type platinum complexes can effectively activate inert olefins. This discovery overturns the previous conclusion that the more electron deficient the metal center, the more readily it is to activate alkenes’ double bonds.
• By regulating “donor–acceptor” electronic effects of platinum catalysts as well as steric effects of the bidentate “donor” ligands, she realized for the first time general and practical hydrolysis of cyanohydrins (ACS Catal. 2021, 11, 8716). Catalytic direct hydration of cyanohydrins was a major challenge in the field of catalysis that had not been solved before.

Since joining SUSTech, She has published 15 peer-reviewed papers as corresponding or co-corresponding author, including 2 in J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2 in Nat. Commun., 4 in ACS Catal. and 3 in Org. Lett.. As Principal Investigator (PI), she has secured six competitive grants, including one General Program Grant (2022-2025) and one Youth Program Grant (2019-2021) sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, one General Program Grant (2018-2021) by the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation, and one General Program Grant (2020-2023) by the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovations Committee. She also received a number of highly competitive awards & recognitions. These include Guangdong Distinguished Young Scholar (2023), Guangdong Pearl River Young Scholar (2018), Shenzhen Peacock Plan Awardee-Category B (2018), Outstanding Lecturer in the Science Population Lecture Hall of SUSTech (2019), and the Science Popularization Contribution Award of SUSTech (2020).