What is the active form of my catalyst for a given reaction of interest? This core question remains one of the most difficult to answer due to tendency of metals and ligands to change oxidation states in situ. Together with chemists at Bristol Myers Squibb and the Blackmond lab at Scripps Research, we undertook a systematic study of bisphosphine oxidation in palladium catalysis and its ramifications in coordination chemistry and catalysis. Led by G4 student Shenghua, this comprehensive study has something for everyone—organometallic synthesis, reaction kinetics, structural characterization, and density functional theory calculations!

For a link to the ChemRxiv pre-print, click here: https://chemrxiv.org/engage/chemrxiv/article-details/66aeabbd5101a2ffa809a6fa