Keynote speakers > Antoine SIMONNEAU (DCC junior prize)

Molecular Donor-Acceptor Systems for Small Molecules Activation

Dr. Antoine Simonneau

LCC-CNRS, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, 31077 Toulouse, France
antoine.simonneau@lcc-toulouse.fr

Biosketch:

After studying at Chimie ParisTech and Sorbonne University, AS completed his PhD under the supervision of Profs. M. Malacria and L. Fensterbank. He continued his training at the Technical University of Berlin under the direction of Prof. M. Oestreich, as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow. In 2015, he joined the group of Prof. M. Etienne at LCC as a CNRS researcher to work on the transformation of N₂. In 2017, he obtained an ERC Starting Grant. Since 2019, he has been co-managing the team “Small Molecules Activation” with Dr. S. Bontemps. In 2022, the Institute of Chemistry of Toulouse awarded him the “Young Researcher” prize.

Summary: 

Activation of small molecules by donor-acceptor systems is conceptually important as many catalytic processes rely on the synergistic action of electron-rich and -poor sites to activate and cleave bonds. This pertains to both the biological and industrial chemistry contexts. Focusing on N₂, the two major processes that converts it into ammonia do not escape this donor-acceptor paradigm.^[1,2] However, the complexity of these two catalytic systems prevents from finely appreciating the impact and consequences of the push-pull activation in action. In this presentation, an overview of the Lewis acid adducts of low-valent N₂-complexes we have prepared will be given, with an emphasis on understanding the factors that lead to enhanced N₂ activation in these donor-acceptor systems.^[3] The reactivity of these new objects was also examined with the aim of devising new avenues for nitrogen fixation, inspired by the frustrated Lewis pair chemistry.^[4]

[1]  P. C. Dos Santos, R. Y. Igarashi, H.-I. Lee, B. M. Hoffman, L. C. Seefeldt, D. R. Dean, Acc. Chem. Res. 2005, 38, 208–214.

[2]  Q. Wang, J. Guo, P. Chen, Chem 2021, 7, 3203–3220.

[3]  A. Coffinet, A. Simonneau, D. Specklin, in Encycl. Inorg. Bioinorg. Chem. (Ed.: R.A. Scott), Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 2020, pp. 1–25.

[4]  D. W. Stephan, Science 2016, 354, aaf7229.