LU Yixin
Professor, Head of Department
Postdoc., Nagoya University; Clinical Research Institute of Montreal; Ph.D., McGill University; M.Sc., Dalian University of Technology; B.Sc., Fudan University
Contact Information:
Office: S9-14-01E
Tel: (65)-6516-1569
Fax: (65)-6779-1691
Email: chmlyx@nus.edu.sg
Research
Recognition and Achievements
- Provost’s Chair Professor, 2025 – 2028
- President of Singapore National Institute of Chemistry, 2025 – present
- Fellow, Singapore National Academy of Science
- Editorial Advisory Board Member, Accounts of Chemical Research, 2017-2023
- NRF Investigatorship Award 2018
- Asian Core Program Lectureship Award to Japan, Korea, China & Taiwan, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014 & 2016
- Dean’s Chair Professorship, 2013
- GSK-SNIC Award in Organic Chemistry, 2013
- Outstanding Scientist Award & Young Scientist Award, Faculty of Science, NUS, 2013 & 2009
- Outstanding Chemist Award & Young Chemist Award, Department of Chemistry, NUS, 2011, 2010
Research Interests
Main areas of study are asymmetric catalysis/synthesis, & medicinal chemistry. Current interests include: asymmetric phosphine catalysis, asymmetric construction of axial chirality, photoredox-organo/transition metal cooperative catalysis, total synthesis, and transition metal catalysis.
Research Highlight
Direct arene C−H functionalization via nucleophilic aromatic substitution remains a challenging task. Here we report an iridium nitrenoid-catalysed arene C−H functionalization strategy, making use of readily available aryl azides as electrophiles to react with different nucleophilic reaction partners. The practicality of this methodology is demonstrated by enantioselective synthesis of chiral 2-amino-2′-hydroxy-1,1′-binaphthyl, a class of building blocks, ligands and catalysts in asymmetric transformation, using β-naphthols and β-naphthyl azides as starting materials under the catalysis of a tailored oxazoline-chelated iridium complex. Mechanistic studies and density functional theory calculations show that the reaction proceeds through an iridium nitrenoid-mediated C−H functionalization pathway. The reported arene C−H functionalization strategy serves as a blueprint to expand the applicability of nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions and is particularly valuable for the synthesis of aniline-containing molecules.
Ref: Qi, L.-W.; Rogge, T.; Houk, K. N.; Lu, Y., Iridium-nitrenoid enabled arene C-H functionalization. Nat. Catal. 2024, 7, 934.
Representative Publications
- Zhu, K.; Sun, Y.; Ma, Y.; Wu, Z.; Lu, Y., Enantioselective synthesis of a-arylated allene ketones through sequential bismuth(V)-mediated arylation and organocatalytic protonation. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2025, 64, e202517136.
- Zheng, W.; Cao, Y.; Tan, B. B.; Wang, Y.; Ge, S.; Lu, Y., Ligand-Controlled Enantioselective Copper-Catalyzed Hydroboration and Ring-Opening Dihydroboration of Arylidenecyclobutanes. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025, 147, 12273.
- He, R.-D.; Lu, Y., Nickel-catalyzed proximal and remote hydrocarboxylation of both functionalized and unactivated alkenes with carbon dioxide. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2025, 64, e202424790.
- Shen, Z.-A.; Guo, J.; Lu, Y., Facile Enantioselective Synthesis of Multi-Substituted Norbornanes/Norbornenes Using a Latent Synthon Strategy. Nat. Commun. 2024, 15, 8351.
- Qi, L.-W.; Rogge, T.; Houk, K. N.; Lu, Y., Iridium-nitrenoid enabled arene C-H functionalization. Nat. Catal. 2024, 7, 934.
- Zheng, W.; Tan, B. B.; Ge, S.; Lu, Y., Enantioselective Copper-Catalyzed Ring-Opening Diboration of Arylidenecyclopropanes to Access Chiral Skipped 1,4- and 1,3-Diboronates. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146, 5366.
- Zhou, X.; Huang, Q.; Guo, J.; Dai, L.; Lu, Y., Molecular editing of pyrroles via a skeletal recasting strategy. ACS Cent. Sci. 2023, 9, 1758.
- Zhou, X.; Huang, Q.; Guo, J.; Dai, L.; Lu, Y., Enantioselective De Novo Synthesis of ɑ,ɑ-Diarylketones from Alkynes. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, 62, e202310078.
- Dai L.; Zhou, X.; Guo, J.; Dai, X.; Huang, Q.; Lu, Y., Diastereo- and atroposelective synthesis of N-Arylpyrroles enabled by light-induced phosphoric acid catalysis. Nat. Commun. 2023, 14, 4813.
- Wu, Z.; Wu, M.; Zhu, K.; Wu, J.; Lu, Y., Photocatalytic coupling of electron-deficient alkenes using oxalic acid as a traceless linchpin. Chem 2023, 9, DOI:10.1016/j.chempr.2022.12.013.
