Irreversible hydrogen transfer reactions Deracemisation of secondary alcohols C-N Bond formation from alcohols C-C Bond formation from alcohols Heterocycle synthesis Amides and nitriles from oximes

Research in the Williams group is mainly involved with the use of transition metals for the synthesis of useful organic molecules. In particular, we have been developing reactions using ‘borrowing hydrogen.’ In this chemistry, ruthenium or iridium catalysts temporarily remove hydrogen to give an aldehyde. This aldehyde then reacts to give an alkene (or imine) and the hydrogen is then returned to give a C-C or C-N bond. These procedures allow alcohols to be used as alkylating agents in place of more conventional, but often toxic/mutagenic alkyl halides.

Marcé, P., Lynch, J., Blacker, A. J. and Williams, J. M. J., 2016. A mild hydration of nitriles catalysed by copper(ii) acetate. Chemical Communications, 52 (7), pp. 1436-1438. Abou-Shehada, S., Teasdale, M. C., Bull, S. D., Wade, C. E. and Williams, J. M. J., 2015. Lewis acid activation of pyridines for nucleophilic aromatic substitution and conjugate addition. ChemSusChem, 8 (6), pp. 1083-1087. Walton, J. W. and Williams, J. M. J., 2015. Catalytic SNAr of unactivated aryl chlorides. Chemical Communications, 51 (14), pp. 2786-2789. Atkinson, B. N. and Williams, J. M. J., 2014. Scandium triflate catalyzed ester synthesis using primary amides. Tetrahedron Letters, 55 (50), pp. 6935-6938. Atkinson, B. and Williams, J. M. J., 2014. Dimethylsulfoxide as an N-Methylation Reagent for Amines and Aromatic Nitro Compounds. ChemCatChem, 6 (7), pp. 1860-1862. Abou-Shehada, S. and Williams, J. M. J., 2014. Separated tandem catalysis:It's about time! Nature Chemistry, 6 (1), pp. 12-13. Van Der Waals, D., Pettman, A. and Williams, J. M. J., 2014. Copper-catalysed reductive amination of nitriles and organic-group reductions using dimethylamine borane. RSC Advances, 4 (94), pp. 51845-51849. Ma, W. M. J., James, T. D. and Williams, J. M. J., 2013. Synthesis of amines with pendant boronic esters by borrowing hydrogen catalysis. Organic Letters, 15 (18), pp. 4850-4853. Williams, J. M. J., 2013. OH activation for nucleophilic substitution. In: Dunn, P. J., Hii, K. K., Krische, M. J. and Williams, M. T., eds. Sustainable Catalysis. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, pp. 121-137. Watson, A.J.A., Atkinson, B.N., Maxwell, A.C. and Williams, J. M. J., 2013. Ruthenium-catalyzed remote electronic activation of aromatic C-F bonds. Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis, 355 (4), pp. 734-740. Davulcu, S., Allen, C.L., Milne, K. and Williams, J. M. J., 2013. Catalytic conversion of nitriles into secondary- and tertiary amides. ChemCatChem, 5 (2), pp. 435-438. Wakeham, R.J., Taylor, J.E., Bull, S.D., Morris, J.A. and Williams, J. M. J., 2013. Iodide as an activating agent for acid chlorides in acylation reactions. Organic Letters, 15 (3), pp. 702-705. Sharma, S.K., Lynch, J., Sobolewska, A.M., Plucinski, P., Watson, R.J. and Williams, J. M. J., 2013. Pt/C catalysed direct reductive amination of nitriles with primary amines in a continuous flow multichannel microreactor. Catalysis Science and Technology, 3 (1), pp. 85-88. Atkinson, B. N., Chhatwal, A. R., Lomax, H. V., Walton, J. W. and Williams, J. M. J., 2012. Transamidation of primary amides with amines catalyzed by zirconocene dichloride. Chemical Communications, 48 (95), pp. 11626-11628. Walton, J.W. and Williams, J. M. J., 2012. Ruthenium-catalyzed ortho-alkylation of phenols with alcohols by dehydrative coupling. Angewandte Chemie-International Edition, 51 (49), pp. 12166-12168. Allen, C. L., Atkinson, B. N. and Williams, J. M. J., 2012. Transamidation of primary amides with amines using hydroxylamine hydrochloride as an inorganic catalyst. Angewandte Chemie-International Edition, 51 (6), pp. 1383-1386. Watson, A. J. A., Maxwell, A. C. and Williams, J. M. J., 2012. Ruthenium-catalysed oxidative synthesis of heterocycles from alcohols. Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 10 (2), pp. 240-243. Taylor, J. E., Bull, S. D. and Williams, J. M. J., 2012. Amidines, isothioureas, and guanidines as nucleophilic catalysts. Chemical Society Reviews, 41 (6), pp. 2109-2121. Kolaczkowski, S. and Williams, J., 2012. Continuous Flow Solutions for Pharmaceutical Manufacture. University of Bath. Allen, C. L., Chhatwal, A. R. and Williams, J. M. J., 2012. Direct amide formation from unactivated carboxylic acids and amines. Chemical Communications, 48 (5), pp. 666-668.