Masakazu Nambo

Co-Principal Investigator, Designated Associate Professor

Organic synthesis, Transition metal catalysis, Nanocarbon chemistry
Multiply arylated methanes including triarylmethanes are valuable structures in functional materials and biologically active compounds. Thus, it is becoming increasingly important to develop efficient and modular route to these species. Friedel-Crafts arylations and reductive dehydroxylations of arylmethanol derivatives are typically employed to access triarylmethanes. Recently, transition-metal catalyzed cross coupling reactions have also been developed. However, these methods often suffer from the formation of undesired regioisomers and the need to prepare reactive intermediates / coupling partners leading to lengthy multi-step syntheses. Our group has recently established a modular synthesis of triarylmethanes and triarylacetonitriles through a Pd-catalyzed sequential arylation strategy. These methods does not only provide a new synthetic approach to multiply arylated methanes starting from readily available haloarenes and arylboronic acids, but is also applicable to the preparation of unexplored materials and pharmaceuticals.

Profile

2006B.S.; Nagoya University (Chemistry; Supervisors: Univ. Prof. Ryoji Noyori, Prof. Susumu Saito)
2008M.S.; Nagoya University (Chemistry; Supervisors: Prof. Ryoji Noyori, Prof. Kenichiro Itami)
2011Ph.D.; Nagoya University (Chemistry; Supervisor: Prof. Kenichiro Itami)
2008-2011JSPS Research Fellow (DC1)
2008Exchange Student; (Münster University, Germany, Supervisor: Prof. Bernhard Wünsch)
2011-2013Research Scientist; Asahi-Kasei Corporation, Japan
2013-presentCo-Principal Investigator, Designated Assistant Professor; WPI-ITbM, Nagoya University
2018-2021Co-Principal Investigator, Designated Lecturer; WPI-ITbM, Nagoya University
2021-presentCo-Principal Investigator, Designated Associate Professor; WPI-ITbM, Nagoya University

Selected Awards and Honors

2017 SYNLETT Best Paper Award 2017
2016 CSJ Presentation Award, The 97th CSJ Annual Meeting