Merck-Banyu Lectureship: Professor Yoichi Hoshimoto, Osaka University

About the Seminar
Exploring Ways to Harness N-Heterocyclic Carbenes and Triarylboranes in Organometallic and Synthetic Chemistry
Our team recently demonstrated a strategy to separate H2 from a gaseous mixture of H2/CO/CO2/CH4 that can include an excess of CO and CO2 relative to H2 and simultaneously store it in N-heterocyclic compounds that act as liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs), which can be applied to produce H2 by subsequent dehydrogenation.1 Our results demonstrate that LOHCs can potentially be used for H2 purification in addition to their well-established use in H2 storage. Moreover, this work demonstrates a new aspect of main group catalysis beyond its application as a simple alternative to well-established transition metal-catalyzed processes, i.e., the main group–catalyzed hydrogenation of unsaturated molecules (e.g., carbonyl compounds)2 under mixed gas conditions. Recent progress on our original triarylborane catalysis will also be mentioned in my lecture.3,4

References
[1] T. Hashimoto, T. Asada, S. Ogoshi, Y. Hoshimoto, Sci. Adv. 2022, 8, eade0189. [2] M. Sakuraba, S. Ogoshi, Y. Hoshimoto, Tetrahedron Chem 2024, 9, 100059. [3] Y. Hoshimoto, T. Kinoshita, S. Hazra, M. Ohashi, S. Ogoshi, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 140, 7292. [4] Y. Hisata, T. Washio, S. Takizawa, S. Ogoshi, Y. Hoshimoto, Nat. Commun. 2024, 15, 3708.
About the Speaker
Yoichi Hoshimoto received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Osaka University under the supervision of Professor S. Ogoshi in 2013. He then joined the Frontier Research Base for Global Young Researchers, Osaka University as a tenure-track assistant professor (2013-2018). Then, he was promoted to Associate professor in the Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, Osaka University (2018). Since 2023, he has been recognized as an “Outstanding Young Researcher (PI)” in the Center for Future Innovation (CFi), Faculty of Engineering, Osaka University. His recent research interests include homogeneous catalysis with transition-metal, and main-group-element complexes and the development of original N-heterocyclic carbenes