Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Catalysis (LSCI)

Xile Hu was born in 1978 in a small village in Putian, southeastern China. He studied chemistry in the College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering at Peking University. As an undergraduate research assistant, he worked on the intercalation chemistry of tungsten bronze in the laboratory of Prof. Jianhua Lin. He obtained his B.S. degree in June 2000. Shortly after, he moved to the United States and began his doctoral studies under the guidance of Prof. Karsten Meyer at the University of California, San Diego (now at the FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg). His research focused on the development of tripodal N-heterocyclic carbene ligands for small molecule activation. In December 2004, after defended his dissertation "Metal Complexes of Tripodal N-Heterocyclic Carbene Ligands: Synthesis, Structure, Bonding, and Reactivity", he was awarded a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry. He became a postdoctoral scholar in the group of Prof. Jonas C. Peters at the California Institute of Technology (now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in February 2005. At Caltech, he worked on the development of transition metal complexes for electrocatalytic hydrogen production, in collaboration with Prof. Nathan S. Lewis and Dr. Bruce S. Brunschwig. In 2007, he was appointed as an assistant professor of chemistry in the Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, where he directs the Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Catalysis. His laboratory is seeking to develop new transition metal based molecular systems for chemical transformations pertinent to synthesis, energy, and sustainability.

Latest NEWS

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Master students: if you are interested in carrying out your Master's thesis projects in organic and organometallic chemistry, catalysis, or energy, please contact Prof. Hu. Unfortunately we are already full for semester projects (4 in total).

♦ [October] Jan Breitenfeld will join the lab as a Ph.D. student. Jan obtained his diploma from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. He will arrive on January 15th, 2010.
♦ [September] Our work on Ni-catalyzed alkyl-aryl coupling (JACS 2009, 131, 9756-9766) is selected by the journal 'Synfacts' as 'SYNFACT of the month' for October 2009 (Synfacts, 2009, 1139).
♦ [August] Our communication "Ni-Catalyzed Sonogashira Coupling of Non-activated Alkyl Halides: Orthogonal Functionalization of Alkyl Iodides, Bromides, and Chlorides" is published by the Journal of the American Chemical Society. See details. It is one of the most accessed articles of JACS in August 2009.
♦ [June] Our work on Ni-catalyzed alkyl-alkyl coupling (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 2937-2940) is selected by the journal 'Synfacts' as 'SYNFACT of the month' for June 2009 (Synfacts, 2009, 0655).

SELECTED PUBLICTIONS

1. Vechorkin, O.; Barmaz, D. Proust, V.; Hu, X.L.* Ni-Catalyzed Sonogashira Coupling of Non-activated Alkyl Halides: Orthogonal Functionalization of Alkyl Iodides, Bromides, and Chlorides. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 12078-12079.
2. Vechorkin, O.; Proust, V.; Hu, X.L.* Functional Group Tolerant Kumada-Corriu-Tamao Coupling of Non-Activated Alkyl Halides with Aryl and Heteroaryl Nucleophiles: Catalysis by a Nickel Pincer Complex Permits the Coupling of Functionalized Grignard Reagents. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 9756-9766.
3. Obrist, B.V.; Chen, D.F.; Ahrens, A.; Schünemann, V.; Scopelliti, R.; Hu, X.L.* An Iron Carbonyl Pyridonate Complex Related to the Active Site of the [Fe]-Hydrogenase (Hmd). Inorg. Chem. 2009, 48, 3514-3516.
4. Vechrokin, O.; Hu, X.L.* Ni-Catalyzed Cross Coupling of Non-Activated and Functionalized Alkyl Halides with Alkyl Grignard Reagents. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 2937-2940.
5. Vechorkin, O.; Csok, Z.; Scopelliti, R.; Hu, X.L.* Nickel Complexes of a Pincer Amidobis(amine) Ligand: Synthesis, Structure, and Activity in Stoichiometric and Catalytic C-C Bond Forming Reactions of Alkyl Halides. Chem. Eur. J. 2009, 15, 3889-3899.
6. Csok, Z.; Vechorkin, O.; Harkins, S.B.; Scopelliti, R.; Hu, X.L.* Nickel Complexes of a Pincer NN₂Ligand: Multiple Carbon-Chloride Activation of CH₂Cl₂ and CHCl₃ Leads to Selective Carbon-Carbon Bond Formation. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 8156-8157.
7. Hu, X.L.; Brunschwig, B.S.; Peters, J.C.* Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution at Low Overpotentials by Cobalt Macrocyclic Glyoxime and Tetraimine Complexes. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 8988-8998.

About Professor Xile HU

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SELECTED PUBLICTIONS