Dr Benjamin N. Bhawal

Chancellor's Fellow

Research summary

Transition-metal catalysis, organocatalysis, site-selective functionalisation, C–H activation, late-stage modification of complex molecules

Research Overview

Our group has a broad interest in catalysis as an enabling tool for the construction of organic molecules. We have research programmes on establishing new paradigms in site-selective functionalisation and unlocking novel chemical reactivity with earth-abundant metal catalysts. An important feature of our work is the use of modern technologies, namely high-throughput experimentation, to accelerate the catalyst discovery process.

  1. Late-Stage Molecular Editing Enabled by Ketone Chain-Walking Isomerization. Yannick Brägger, Ori Green, Benjamin N. Bhawal, and Bill Morandi, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2023, 145, 19496. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c05680
  2. Steric, Electronic and Conformational Synergistic Effects in the Gold(I)-catalyzed α-C-H Bond Functionalization of Tertiary Amines, David Fabian León Rayo, Ali Mansour, Wenbin Wu, Benjamin N. Bhawal, Fabien Gagosz, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2023, e202212893. DOI: 10.1002/anie.202212893
  3. Overcoming Selectivity Issues in Reversible Catalysis – A Transfer Hydrocyanation Exhibiting High Kinetic Control. Benjamin N. Bhawal, Julia C. Reisenbauer, Christian Ehinger and Bill Morandi, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2020, 142, 10914. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c03184
  4. Catalytic isofunctional reactions – expanding the repertoire of shuttle and metathesis reactions. Benjamin N. Bhawal and Bill Morandi, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2019, 58, 10074. DOI: 10.1002/anie.201803797
  5. Palladium-​catalyzed carbon-​sulfur or carbon-​phosphorus bond metathesis by reversible arylation. Zhong Lian, Benjamin N. Bhawal, Peng Yu and Bill Morandi. Science, 2017, 356, 1059. DOI: 10.1126/science.aam9041
This article was published on