Shengjun Ni
Postdoc (October 2018 – May 2020)
Chemical biography
Shengjun joined our group in October 2018, shortly after completing his PhD on carbocation-catalysed reactions in the group of Johan Franzén at KTH in Stockholm.
Prior to that, Shengjun completed his Masters degree in organometallic chemistry at the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), where his project was supervised by Prof. Shengming Ma. His research there focused on the transformations of strained molecules, such as cyclopropenes and methylenecyclopropanes.
Shengjun also spent a year working in industry at Basilea Pharmeceutica China Ltd (BPC), where he prepared anti-fungal drugs and earned several prizes for the efficiency of his syntheses.
In our group, Shengjun developed and investigated a new transition metal-catalyzed C–H methylation reaction run under solvent-free, mechanochemical conditions. He showed the reaction could be used in the late-stage functionalization of complex, biologically active molecules. Shengjun’s work was published in Angewandte Chemie in October 2020.
Publications
From research in our group
13. Mechanochemical Solvent-Free Catalytic C–H Methylation
S. Ni, M. Hribersek, S. Baddigam, F. L. J. Ingner, A. Orthaber, P. J. Gates, L. T. Pilarski*
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020, accepted.
From work before joining our group
12. Carbocation-Catalyzed Intramolecular Aldehyde-olefin Metathesis
S. Ni, J. Franzén
Chem. Commun. 2018, 54, 12981
11. Carbocation Catalyzed Bromination of Alkyl Arenes, a Chemoselective sp3 vs. sp2 C-H functionalization
S. Ni, M. Remaily, J. Franzén
Adv. Synth. Catal. 2018, 360, 4197
10. Chiral Anion Directed Asymmetric Carbocation-Catalyzed Diels-Alder Reactions
S. Ni, V. R. Naidu, J. Franzén
Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2016, 1708
9. The Carbocation: A Forgotten Lewis Acid Catalyst
V. R. Naidu, S. Ni, J. Franzén
ChemCatChem 2015, 7, 1896
8. Carbocation Catalysis: Oxa-Diels-Alder Reactions of Unactivated Aldehydes and Simple Dienes
M. Remaily, V. R. Naidu, S. Ni, J. Franzén
Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2015, 6610
7. Cadmium Iodide-Mediated Allenylation of Terminal Alkylation of Ketones
X. Tang, C. Zhu, T. Cao, J. Kuang, W. Lin, S. Ni, J. Zhang, S. Ma
Nature Commun. 2013, 4, 2450
6. Unexpected Regioselectivity Switch: Organophosphine-Triggered Reactions of Cyclopropene-1,1-dicarboxylates with Aldehydes
S. Ni, J. Chen. S. Ma
Org. Lett. 2015, 15, 2390
5. Bimetallic Enantioselective Approach to Axially Chiral Allenes
R. Lü, J. Ye, T. Cao, B. Chen., W Fan, W. Lin, J. Lin, H. Luo, B. Miao, S. Ni, X. Tang, N. Wang, Y. Wang,X, Xie, Q. Yu, W. Yuan, W. Zhang, C. Zhu, S. Ma
Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 2254
4. Palladium-Catalyzed Reaction of Propargylic Carbonates with Benzyne
S. Ni, W. Shu, S. Ma
Synlett 2013, 24, 2310
3. Preparation of 1-Benzyl-2-methyl-3-(ethoxycarbonyl)-4-(2-phenylethyl)-1H-pyrrole from 4-Phenyl-1,2-butadiene
S. Ni, C. Zhu, J. Chen, S. Ma
Org. Synth. 2013, 90, 327
2. Tuning of Regioselectivity in Inorganic Iodide-Catalyzed Alkylation of 2-Methoxyfurans via Electronic and Steric Effects
J. Chen, S. Ni, S. Ma
Adv. Synth. Catal. 2012, 354, 1114
1. Highly Regioselective Synthesis of 2,3,5-Trisubstituted Furans via Phosphine-Catalyzed Ring-Opening Cycloisomerization Reactions of Cyclopropenyl Dicarboxylates
J. Chen, S, Ni, S. Ma
Synlett 2011, 7, 931
Contact
Our group is part of the Organic Chemistry research program in the Department of Chemistry at Uppsala University’s Biomedical Centre (BMC).
TO SEND US SOMETHING
Department of Chemistry – BMC
Box 576
Uppsala University
75-123 Uppsala
Sweden
lukasz dot pilarski at kemi dot uu dot se
TO VISIT
Department of Chemistry – BMC
Husargatan 3
Uppsala