On February 9, 2021, the scientific research team of Professor Feng Zhang of the School of Medicine of CQU published a research paper titled “Experimental and Computational Studies on the Iron-Catalyzed Selective and Controllable Defluorosilylation of Unactivated Aliphatic gem-Difluoroalkenes” on Angewandte Chemie International Edition, a top journal on chemistry. (Factor of influence of 2020: 13.05) Researcher Feng Zhang from the School of Medicine of Chongqing University and Professor Peng Qian from Nankai University are corresponding co-authors of the paper.

It is the first reported Fe catalyzed method for the defluorosilane reaction of unactivated difluoro olefins by C-F bond cleavage, which can efficiently and selectively synthesize cyclobissilylated olefins and (E)-silylated fluoroolefins under mild conditions. The reaction methodology is characterized by high functional group compatibility, excellent regioselectivity and stereoselectivity, and can be used for the later silylation of biological related molecules, and provides more opportunities for pharmaceutical chemistry.

The research team of Feng Zhang worked with the team led by Professor Peng Qian of the School of Chemistry of Nankai University and carried out the mechanism study and DFT computation. They found that the catalytic system for the synthesis of bissilylated olefins involves the nucleophilic addition and elimination of the second C-F bond, which fully demonstrates the unique reaction law of Fe catalysis, and is also a desirable supplement to the defluorination reaction methodology catalyzed by Cu, Ni and PD, and provides a reaction methodology strategy for the cracking of C-F bond catalyzed by Fe.

The research work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the operating expense for basic scientific and technological researches in colleges and universities.

Link of the paper: https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202100049