Scholars@Duke
Ross A. Widenhoefer

Ross A. Widenhoefer

Professor of Chemistry
Chemistry
ross.widenhoefer@duke.edu
Box 90346, Durham, NC 27708-0346
124 Science Drive, 2101 French Science Center, Durham, NC 27708

Featured Works

Mechanochemical Regulation of Oxidative Addition to a Palladium(0) Bisphosphine Complex.

Journal article Journal of the American Chemical Society · October 2020 Featured Publication Here, we report the effect of force applied to the biaryl backbone of a bisphosphine ligand on the rate of oxidative addition of bromobenzene to a ligand-coordinated palladium center. Local compressive and tensile forces on the order of 100 pN were generat ... Full text Cite

Formation of Cyclopropanes via Activation of (γ-Methoxy)alkyl Gold(I) Complexes with Lewis Acids

Journal article Organometallics · September 14, 2020 Featured Publication Treatment of the gold 3-methoxy-3-phenylpropyl complex (P)AuCH2CH2CH(OMe)Ph [P = P(t-Bu)2o-biphenyl] with AlCl3 at -78 °C led to the immediate (≤5 min) formation of a 4:1 mixture of phenylcyclopropane and (1-methoxypropyl)benzene in 86 ± 5% combined yield. ... Full text Cite

Synthesis, Structure, and Reactivity of Gold(I) α-Oxo Carbenoid Complexes

Journal article Organometallics · April 27, 2020 Featured Publication The trifluoromethanesulfonate α-oxo carbenoid complexes (IPr)AuCH(OTf)COR [R = OEt (1a), p-tolyl (1b)] were isolated from reactions of (IPr)Au(OTf) with the corresponding α-diazo carbonyl compounds. The pyridinium α-oxo carbenoid complexes [(IPr)AuCH(4-MeC ... Full text Cite