New Publication

Another collaborative paper with the Morrill Group! This time we combine organocatalysis and ball-milling to deliver NHC catalysed acyl anion chemistry under milling conditions. This project took a while to land the appropriate conditions and then convert to substrate scope. Alex and Saqib were fresh faced MChem students at project outset, fortunately it did not put them off organic methodology and they are now pursuing PhDs, Morrill Group and Ingleson Group (Edinburgh), respectively. Good job by Will and Ben for seeing it through!

065- N‐Heterocyclic Carbene Acyl Anion Organocatalysis by Ball‐Milling

William I. Nicholson, Alex C. Seastram, Saqib A. Iqbal, Benjamin G. Reed-Berendt, Louis C. Morrill* & Duncan L. Browne* ChemSusChem 2019 DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201902346

[Open Access][Part of Wiley 'Hot Topic: Organocatalysis']

New Publication

Ben, Deepak, Alex (LCM Group) and Toms paper on the electrochemically driven, manganese catalysed deconstructive chlorination of cycloalkanols is published in Organic Letters! Congratulations folks, a lot of hard work went into this one! Thanks to Louis for letting us get involved and investigate this reaction using flow methods and continuous workup.

064- Manganese-Catalyzed Electrochemical Deconstructive Chlorination of Cycloalkanols via Alkoxy Radicals

Benjamin D. W. Allen, Mishra Deepak Hareram, Alex C. Seastram, Tom McBride, Thomas Wirth, Duncan L. Browne* & Louis C. Morrill* Org. Lett. 2019, 21, 9241-9246.

[Open Access]

Welcome to Harry and Riley

The group welcomes back Riley Payne (former BSC student in the group) as an MPhil student and Harry Smallman (former CUROP summer student) as a PhD student, here we are outside our new HQ in London!

Duncan says thankyou and farewell to Cardiff Chemistry

Following an exciting five years at Cardiff the time has come for Duncan to move on. I wish to thank all of my colleagues and the excellent students that have been members of the team and attended lectures - The team started here and we have had many talented individuals pass through and contribute, some members will remain to complete their PhDs. A special thanks to the Molecular Synthesis section and Morrill Group with which we have become very close friends and colleagues - thanks for the special spatula!

DLB Lab welcomes new team mates

The Group welcomes two new colleagues in Cardiff. Matthew Williams joins the group as a PhD student through the Catalysis CDT and will work on Mechanochemical organocatalysis in collaboration with Louis Morrill and Alastair Lennox (Bristol). We also welcome back Robert Bolt as an MChem project student, Rob is a man of two faces, one which says 'why are you pointing that camera at me, I'm trying to get on with this', and another which says 'I'm only joking, look, I'll even smile'. Welcome to the team both.

Welcome to Summer Placement Students Adam Khan and Robert Bolt

The Group welcomes two summer visitors - Adam Khan joins as recipient of a CUROP bursary to work with Will Nicholson on the development of new chemical reactivity using mechanochemical and ball-milling processes and Robert Bolt joins us with an RSC Summer Bursary to study catalytic mechanochemical processes towards drug-discovery and will work alongside PhD student mentor Andrew Jones for 8 Weeks. Welcome to the team!

New Publication

Qun and Roddy's work on the use of the ball-mill for processing zinc metal in Reformatsky reactions is published in ChemSusChem. Good job folks!

063- A Ball‐Milling‐Enabled Reformatsky Reaction

Qun Cao, Roderick T. Stark, Ian A. Fallis & Duncan L. Browne* ChemSusChem 2019 DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201900886.

[Open Access]

Welcome to Bhaskar Chakraborty

The Group welcome Visiting Academic Bhaskar Chakraborty (Associate Professor & Head of Department of Chemistry, Sikkim Government College, P.O:Tadong, Gangtok, Sikkim, India). Bhaskar is here for 6 months to explore the technique of mechanochemistry and ball-milling.

Group presents poster at RSC Fluorine Interest Group meeting, Southampton

Group member Roddy Stark presented his poster on the ball-milling enabled Reformatsky reaction at the RSC Fluorine Interest Group meeting in Southampton.

New Collaborative Publication

Christiane's contribution to the project in the Noël Research Group (NRG!) is published in JACS. Congratulations to everyone involved in this project, especially Gabriele and Tim who led this project expertly over the finish line, take-that sulfonamides!

062- Sulfonamide Synthesis through Electrochemical Oxidative Coupling of Amines and Thiols

Gabriele Laudadio, Efstathios Barmpoutsis, Christiane Schotten, Lisa Struik, Sebastian Govearts, Duncan L. Browne & Timothy Noël* J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b02266

New Publication

Renan and Tom's work on the generation and interception of acylketenes under continuous flow conditions has been accepted for publication in Reaction Chemistry and Engineering. Great job by Renan and Tom on this one!

061- Exploring the generation and use of acylketenes with continuous flow processes

Renan Galaverna, Tom McBride, Julio C. Pastre & Duncan L. Browne* React. Chem. Eng. 2019 DOI: 10.1039/C9RE00072K

Farewell to visiting PhD Renan

We say farewell to Renan Galaverna who travels back to UNICAMP, Brazil - Renan is the coolest-cat we have met, both in the lab and on the football pitch! thanks for your hard work Renan!

Group presents posters at local RSC Organic Section meeting

Group members Roddy Stark, Renan Galaverna and Will Nicholson presented their posters at the local RSC Organic Section meeting (South-West). Will received a runner-up prize for his poster concerning the mechanochemical formation of C-N bonds, congratulations Will!

Farewell to PDRA Yin

We say farewell to PDRA Yin JieXiang who travels to Australia to be with his young family - good luck to you all on your adventure and thanks for your hard work and dedication.