Nils Frank
@nilsfrank99.bsky.social
PhD student in the List-Lab (Max-Planck für Kohlenforschung) | Previously: MedChem Intern @Roche | MRes @University of Oxford (Ed Anderson-, Duarte-Group) | KIT Karlsruhe (BSc)
NEW ANALYSIS: One of the most consequential discoveries of the 20th century is marked by a small blue plaque near my office. The lithium-ion cathode, Oxford, 1980. Grid batteries have since gone from one 5 MW project to 267 GW worldwide. New Bright Spots 👇 open.substack.com/pub/janrosen...
Batteries are quietly rewiring the grid
From a plaque in Oxford to a third of California's electricity peak: how batteries revolutionise the grid.
open.substack.com
When it comes to the energy transition I'm a glass half full person. I know: plenty of people would say that's terribly naive. They point to the scale of the challenge. They point to vested interests. They point to hard-to-abate sectors. And they're not wrong. But here's what they miss. 🧵
Check out the recent work on the photohydrolysis of furans by List et al., with contributions from Benjamin Helmich-Paris. For a quick start on GOAT, DLPNO-CCSD(T), and more also check our ORCA tutorials www.faccts.de/docs/orca/tu.... doi.org/10.1126/scie... #MPIKOFO #FACCTs #CompChem #ORCAqc
The photohydrolysis of furans
The defossilization of the chemical industry is accelerated by the shift from petroleum- to biomass-based feedstocks. At the center stage are bioderived furans, from which valuable platform chemicals ...
doi.org
AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage | Cory Doctorow
AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage | Cory Doctorow
AI is asbestos in the walls of our tech society, stuffed there by monopolists run amok. A serious fight against it must strike at its roots
theguardian.com
In @science.org for chemsky this week, Ben List’s group crack open furans through a fascinating photo-oxidative dimerization reaction www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The photohydrolysis of furans
The defossilization of the chemical industry is accelerated by the shift from petroleum- to biomass-based feedstocks. At the center stage are bioderived furans, from which valuable platform chemicals ...
science.org
What else is possible besides oxidation and reduction of biobased furans? Just redox-neutrally hydrolyse them! We hope to add with this work another cool reaction to the arsenal of biobased chemistries. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The photohydrolysis of furans
The defossilization of the chemical industry is accelerated by the shift from petroleum- to biomass-based feedstocks. At the center stage are bioderived furans, from which valuable platform chemicals ...
science.org
Now online and open access: Article by Benjamin List & co-workers Catalytic asymmetric activation of bicyclobutanes www.nature.com/articles/s44... #Chemsky
Catalytic asymmetric activation of bicyclobutanes - Nature Synthesis
The precise manipulation of unfunctionalized hydrocarbons remains a fundamental challenge in chemical synthesis and catalysis. Here an organocatalytic asymmetric hydroxylation of bicyclobutanes with a...
nature.com
Kevin Drum was the first journalist to really get into the ties between lead and crime rates (not just serial killers) and I think it is one of the most important articles we’ve ever done www.motherjones.com/environment/...
America's Real Criminal Element Is Lead
The hidden villain behind violent crime, lower IQs, and the maybe even the ADHD epidemic.
motherjones.com
The New Yorker@newyorker.com · 9mo agoWhat might account for the abrupt rise and equally abrupt fall, between the 1960s and the turn of the century, of the “golden age” of serial killing? And why were so many of these brutes from the area around Seattle’s Puget Sound? newyorkermag.visitlink.me/GM5SKR
We have reached 1.4 degrees celsius #globalheating according to NASA data (smooth black trend line). Breaching 1.5 is now inevitable. From now on the fight is to keep overshoot as small and short as possible.
The combined power of halogen bonding and asymmetric counteranion-directed catalysis = XB-ACDC: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/.... Thanks to @mertenlab.bsky.social for structure elucidation and to the List group for this beautiful cooperation! A perfect #RESOLV project! @solvationsci.bsky.social
Asymmetric Counteranion-Directed Halogen Bonding Catalysis
Halogen bonding has been established as a promising tool in organocatalysis. Asymmetric processes are nevertheless scarce, and their applications are limited to a few studies applying chiral halogen b...
pubs.acs.org
The global oil industry appears to be backing away from renewable energy and returning to its core business of extracting and refining fossil fuels. Many companies are looking to increase oil and gas production.
Chevron and BP cutting thousands of jobs
Oil industry is broadly looking to cut costs, increase oil and gas production and cut renewable investments
chemistryworld.com
Excited to share our first steps into the world of furan chemistry — an underexplored but increasingly important heterocycle in the shift away from fossil-based chemicals. We hope to offer a robust method achieving "Birch"-type and fully reduced furans. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Bro̷nsted Acid-Catalyzed Reduction of Furans
Bioderived furans play a pivotal role in advancing defossilized chemical pathways. The complete reduction of furans currently relies on impractical metal-catalyzed hydrogenations at high pressures and temperatures. In addition, the Birch reduction of unbiased furans to 2,5-dihydrofurans remains an unsolved synthetic challenge. Herein, we report a mild Bro̷nsted acid-catalyzed reduction of furans to 2,5-dihydro- and/or tetrahydrofuran derivatives using silanes as reducing agents. In particular, the first formal Birch reduction of furan itself is achieved. Mechanistic investigations reveal an intricate behavior of HFIP as the crucial solvent, preventing the intrinsic polymerization behavior of furans under acidic conditions and introducing additional driving force by specific product binding.
pubs.acs.org
