Ph.D. University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Advisor: Ian A. Tonks
Yukun was born and raised in Guangzhou, a hot and humid metropolis in nearly the most southern part of China. He obtained his B.S. in chemistry from SUSTech in Shenzhen, pretty close to his hometown. He found his passion for chemistry there and spent a few years in the the lab doing undergraduate research on photofunctional materials under Prof. Keith M.-C. Wong. After that, Yukun thought he’s getting enough of the hot weather, so he decided to go to Minnesota for his graduate school, where he saw snow for the first time (but soon getting tired of it). Yukun obtained his PhD degree from UMN in 2022 under Prof. Ian A. Tonks with his degree study focusing on homogenous titanium redox catalysis for nitrene transfer reactions. Seeking a slightly warmer place to do cool chemistry, Yukun joined the Lin group in December 2022 to study organic electrosynthesis. Outside the lab, Yukun loves spending his time reading history (mostly from browsing wikipedia or watching youtube videos though), and making new cuisines that fit his own weird taste without checking recipes.
Publications:
- Cheng, Y.; de Zwart, F. J.; Huh, D. N.; Frye, C. W.; de Bruin, B.; Tonks, I. A. Mechanistic Study of Oxidation-Induced N-N Coupling of Diazatitanacycles. Manuscript in Preparation.
- Cheng, Y.; Butler, S. K.; Huh, D. N.; Tonks, I. A. Comprehensive Coordination Chemistry IV: Metal-Mediated Reductive C–C Coupling of π Bonds. Elsevier, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-820206-7.00137-2
- Jacobson, C. R.; Wu, G.; Alemany, L.; Naidu, G. N.; Lou, M.; Yuan, Y.; Bayles, A.; Clark, B. D.; Cheng, Y.; Ali, A.; Tsai, A.-L.; Tonks, I. A.; Nordlander, P.; Halas, N. J. A Dual Catalyst Strategy for Controlling Aluminum Nanocrystal Growth. Nano Lett., 2022, 22, 13, 5570–5574. DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c01854
- Pyles, C. G.; Patrow, J. G.; Cheng, Y.; Tonks, I. A.; Massari, A. M. Ruthenium Hydride Formation in Sol-Gel Glasses Results in New Ultrafast Vibrational Dynamics. J. Chem. Phys. 2022, 156, 12, 124502. DOI: 10.1063/5.0082752
- Frye, C. W.; Egger, D. T.; Kounalis, E.; Pearce, A. J.; Cheng, Y.; Tonks, I. A. α-Diimine Synthesis via Titanium-Mediated Multicomponent Diimination of Alkynes with C-Nitrosos. Chem. Sci. 2022, 13, 1469–1477. DOI: 10.1039/D1SC06111A
- Huh, D. N.; Cheng, Y.; Frye, C. W.; Egger, D. T.; Tonks, I. A. Multicomponent Syntheses of 5- and 6-Membered Aromatic Heterocycles Using Group 4–8 Transition Metal Catalysts. Chem. Sci. 2021, 12, 9574–9590. DOI: 10.1039/D1SC03037J
- Qian, Z.; Cheng, Y.; Zhao, S.; Wong, K. M.-C. Design, Synthesis and Ring-Opening Properties of a New Bipyridine Fused Rhodamine-Like Chelating Ligand and the Related Transition Metal Complexes. Chin. J. Chem. 2021, 39, 1659–1666. DOI: 10.1002/cjoc.202000748
- Pearce, A. J.‡; Cheng, Y.‡; Dunscomb, R. J.; Tonks, I. A. Generation of Masked TiII Intermediates from TiIV Amides via β-H Abstraction or Alkyne Deprotonation: An Example of Ti-Catalyzed Nitrene-Coupled Transfer Hydrogenation. Organometallics 2020, 39, 21, 3771–3774. DOI: 10.1021/acs.organomet.0c00577
- Cheng, Y.; Klein, C. K.; Tonks, I. A. Synthesis of Pentasubstituted 2-Aryl Pyrroles from Boryl and Stannyl Alkynes via One-Pot Sequential Ti-Catalyzed [2+2+1] Pyrrole Synthesis/Cross Coupling Reactions. Chem. Sci. 2020, 11, 10236–10242. DOI: 10.1039/D0SC01576H
- Patrow, J. G.; Cheng, Y.; Pyles, C. G.; Luo, B.; Tonks, I. A.; Massari, A. M. Spectroscopic Study of Sol-Gel Entrapped Triruthenium Dodecacarbonyl Catalyst Reveals Hydride Formation. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2020, 11, 17, 7394–7399. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c02316 Correction: J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2022, 13, 18, 4176. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c01280
- Cheng, Y.‡; Li, L.‡; Wei, F.; Wong, K. M.-C. Alkynylplatinum (II) Terpyridine System Coupled with Rhodamine Derivative: Interplay of Aggregation, Deaggregation, and Ring-Opening Processes for Ratiometric Luminescence Sensing. Inorg. Chem. 2018, 57, 11, 6439–6446. DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.8b00448
‡These authors contributed equally.
Contact: Yukun Cheng