Transcript Document

School of Chemical Sciences Seminar
Mass spectrometry-led catalyst discovery
Scott McIndoe
Department of Chemistry, University of Victoria, BC, Canada
Intermediate
PdL2(R)(X)
(100 ×)
Product
Intermediate
PdL2(R)(R’)
(100 ×)
Byproduct
Reactant
Thursday, March 14, 2013, 4 pm, 407 followed by sherry hour in the 5th floor common room
Abstract
Determination of catalytic mechanisms is a challenging task, not least because intermediates are
difficult to observe due to their relatively low concentration. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry
has some distinct advantages in this regard: it is fast, highly sensitive and has a wide dynamic range,
allowing the simultaneously monitoring of the concentration of starting materials, products, byproducts
and intermediates. However, the technique has numerous weaknesses that must be overcome through
the application of appropriate methodology. Our approach will be described in the context of our
investigations into palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions, including the copper-free
Sonogashira and Suzuki reactions.
CV
Scott McIndoe was born in Rotorua and raised on a farm in the Mamaku ranges. He completed his
DPhil in synthetic organometallic chemistry at the University of Waikato under the supervision of
Professor Brian Nicholson. In 1998, he took up a New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science &
Technology (FRST) Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Cambridge, UK, where he worked in
the group of Professor Brian Johnson FRS. In 2000, he began a college lectureship, teaching at Trinity
and Newnham Colleges, Cambridge, and continued his research in the Department of Chemistry. Three
years later he moved to his current position in the chemistry department at UVic, and was promoted to
associate professor in 2009. The McIndoe group have particular interests in the areas of organometallic
catalysis and synthesis, and develop and use novel mass spectrometric techniques to enable rapid
catalyst discovery, mechanism elucidation and reaction optimisation.