Regioselective hydroformylation is a powerful carbon-carbon bond forming reaction.In spite of that a number of ligands have been developed, high catalyst loading, low reaction rate, poor selectivity and narrow substrate scope are still unsolved problems in hydroformylation processes. By incorporating four chelating phosphine atoms, Professor ZHANG’s group recently developed two tetraphosphorus ligands which achieved unprecedented regioselectivity for the hydroformylation of terminal and internal olefins. To the best of our knowledge, the regioselectivity achieved utilizing the tetraphosphorus ligands is the highest.

Introduction of Professor ZHANG Xumu:

Education

1978-1982 Wuhan University, Hubei, People’s Republic of China  B. S. in Chemistry, August, 1982

1982-1985 Chinese Science Academy, Fuzhou, People’s Republic of China  M.S. in Physical and Inorganic Chemistry, August, 1985

1985-1987 University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA    M. S. in Organometallic Chemistry, July, 1987

1987-1992 Stanford University, Stanford, CA  Ph. D. in Organic and Inorganic Chemistry, August, 1992

Professional Experience

1982-1985 Staff Researcher, Chinese Science Academy, Fuzhou, China

1985-1987 Research Assistant and Teaching Assistant, Department of Chemistry, University of California, San Diego, CA

1987-1992 Research Assistant, Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

1992-1994 Postdoctoral and Research Associate, Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

Research Advisor: Professor James P. Collman

Research Area: Functional Models of Cytochrome C Oxidase

1994-1999 Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

1999-2003 Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

2003-2006 Professor, Department of Chemistry, the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

2007-present Professor, Department of Chemistry and Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, 

Research Interests

Synthetic organic, inorganic and organometallic chemistry, transition metal catalyzed asymmetric reactions for the synthesis of biologically active compounds, biomimetic chemistry, molecular recognition and material chemistry.