Catalysis: Changing the World for the Better

Abstract

Catalysis is the speeding up of a chemical reaction by adding a small amount of a substance known as a catalyst. The catalyst gets regenerated and recycled after the reaction. Catalysis plays a crucial role in many industrial processes, contributing to 35% of the world’s GDP. The Nobel prize in chemistry has been awarded seven times for catalysis. Contemporary catalytic science is notable for both conceptual and technical innovation, and it has three pillars: transition metal (TM) catalysis, organocatalysis, and biocatalysis. This talk will introduce these subfields of catalysis to a general audience, with a focus on TM catalysis, which has revolutionized both the art of chemical synthesis in research labs and the manufacturing of chemical products in industry. Recently with the growing relevance of sustainability, there has been much effort to develop catalysts based on Earth-abundant transition metals to achieve sustainable catalysis. In TM-catalyzed reactions, the intermediate chemical species are frequently highly reactive and not easily observable by experiment. Thus, computational modeling can play a critical role in revealing the detailed mechanism of TM catalysis, and this is my field of study. I will show examples of our computational studies of cutting-edge TM catalysis, which not only rationalize experimental facts, but also gain novel insights that can guide further experimental work. 

Bio

Xiaotai Wang received his undergraduate and Master’s education in China. Afterwards he won a full scholarship from the University of Virginia, which brought him to the US to pursue a PhD in chemistry. This was followed by two short postdocs at the University of Utah and Iowa State University. His PhD and postdoc work were concerned with the synthesis and reactivity of organometallic compounds. After beginning his independent career in the US, Dr. Wang studied the synthesis and properties of a class of advanced materials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Dr. Wang’s current research interests are in computational organometallic chemistry, with a focus on studying the mechanisms of transition metal-catalyzed synthetically useful reactions. Research in this direction addresses the experimental-theoretical synergy and provides ideas and insights for new reaction development. 
Dr. Xiaotai Wang joined Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) as a professor of chemistry in November 2022. He had previously worked at the University of Colorado Denver, moving up the ranks of assistant professor, associate professor (tenured), and professor (tenured). He was a visiting professor/scholar at MIT, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Hoffmann Institute in Shenzhen. Working at XJTLU, a unique international university in China, Dr. Wang aims to cultivate future generations of scientists and world citizens.  

催化让世界变得更美好 

摘要

催化是通过添加少量称为催化剂的物质来加速化学反应，反应后催化剂得到再生和循环利用。 催化在许多工业过程中发挥着至关重要的作用，贡献了世界 GDP 的 35%。催化领域已经七次荣获诺贝尔化学奖。当代催化科学以概念和技术创新而著称，具有三大支柱：过渡金属催化、有机催化和生物催化。本讲座将介绍这些催化研究领域，重点是过渡金属催化，因为它给实验室里的化学合成艺术以及工业上的化学产品制造都带来了革命性的改变。近年来，随着可持续性发展变得日益重要，人们在开发基于地球丰产过渡金属的催化剂以实现可持续催化方面做出了很大的努力。在过渡金属催化反应中，中间化学物种通常具有高反应活性，不易被实验观测。因此，计算化学模拟在揭示过渡金属催化的详细机制方面可以发挥关键作用，这是我的研究领域。我将展示我们对新型过渡金属催化反应的计算模拟研究的例子，这些研究不仅合理地解释了实验结果，而且获得了可以指导进一步实验工作的新颖见解。

人物简介

汪小泰在中国接受本科和硕士学位教育，随后获得了美国弗吉尼亚大学的全额奖学金，前往该校攻读化学博士学位。此后他在美国犹他大学和爱荷华州立大学分别进行了短期博士后研究。 他的博士和博士后工作涉及有机金属化合物的合成和反应性。在美国开始独立职业生涯后，汪博士研究了一类被称为金属有机框架的先进材料的合成和性能。汪博士目前的研究兴趣是计算有机金属化学，重点研究过渡金属催化的在合成上有用的化学反应的机理。该方向的研究旨在解决实验与理论的协同性问题，并为新反应的开发提供了思路和见解。 

汪小泰博士于2022年11月加入西交利物浦大学，担任化学教授。此前他在美国科罗拉多大学丹佛分校工作，历任助理教授、副教授（终身）、教授（终身）。他曾在麻省理工学院、中国科学院和深圳霍夫曼研究院等机构担任客座教授或访问学者。在西交利物浦大学这所中国独特的国际大学工作，汪博士致力于培养下一代科学人和世界公民。