Ruan Linxin, Ph.D. from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy Sciences, supervised by Professor Shi Shiliang.
Research Interests: Advantageous chiral n-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands and their applications in important challenging asymmetric reactions.
Achievements: Ruan Linxin developed a novel chiral carbene-nickel catalyst for dynamic kinetic asymmetric arylation and alkenylation of non-activated ketones. Leveraging the chiral ANIPE-Ni catalyst, he achieved rate matching, chiral recognition, and selective control in these transformations, effectively constructing two consecutive chiral centers. This method allows for the high-efficiency, high-stereoselectivity synthesis of complex chiral tertiary alcohols, which are difficult to prepare through other methods. The new approach of fast racemization and the nickel carbene catalytic strategy provides new ideas for developing other challenging dynamic kinetic asymmetric carbonyl transformations.