N-Heterocyclic Carbenes

New Year Update

Vinh — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:22:45 +0000

2010 is already 1 month old, I realized that the last entry was months ago. I was probably too busy, too comfortable or simply too lazy to update the webpage. Anyway, many things have happened since the last entry and therefore this update will be rather “concentrated”.
Let’s start with some old “news” on group members:
Sometimes in August 2009, five new Honours students (Ivan, Geck Woon, Chee Fei, Tiffany and Sharon) started their FYPs and are soon already finishing their work. Dr. Han Yuan has returned from China and has re-joined the group now as my first research fellow! Dr. Surajit Jana from the Mitzel group in Germany is our second new research fellow. In the meantime, we also had three visiting students from different countries (Saikat Manna from IIT Karagpur, India; Van Manh Pham from ENSCM Montepellier, France; and Emily Lai from UBC Vancouver, Canada) for a short period in our lab. Earlier this month Jothibasu has submitted his thesis and is curently enjoying his life in India while waiting for his defence.
Our newest member is Kapil Pareek, who just joined this month as a graduate student. The pictures of these guys and girls can be found at the “Group Members” or “Former Group Members” pages.

Farewell to Dr. Han Yuan :-)

Vinh — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:39:58 +0000

On 30th June 2009, the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY has been conferred upon my very first graduate student Han Yuan. During her candidature, she has always worked very hard and demonstrated an excellent attitude towards science, which has already led to 10 publications (!), and more are in preparation. She has been a great team-player and is thus a role model for her juniors. Now Dr Han has started her own carreer, and I wish her all the best and great success.
Farewell, Dr. Han…we are all missing you.

Our 1st group retreat :-)

Yuan Han — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 08:21:20 +0000

For the last weekend of March in 2009, we had our first ever group retreat in Desaru, Malaysia. The main aim of this group retreat is to write up a student training program for our group, which was accomplished in those three days. Another aim is of course to relax and recharge. On Friday, we went on a firefly tour. There we sat in a little boat watching thousands of fireflies shining along the river. This is really a fascinating experience for me. On Saturday, our nice boss treated us to a sea food dinner, hehe. On Sunday, we went to the Desaru Fruit Farm. There we were provided with a guided tour, from which we learnt how banana, durian, dragon fruit, passion fruit etc. grow. As a girl from the temperate zone, I saw what those tropical fruit trees are like for my first time, hehe. At this moment when my graduation is so soon, the group retreat adds another treasure into my memory for my 4 years’ Ph.D. life in Singapore.

Group lunch at Modesto’s

Vinh — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:46:00 +0000

It was a special time of year, Boss was feeling extremely generous and so he treated the Huynh Group to a group lunch at Modesto’s located at Vivocity. It was a welcome break from labwork that resulted in much humour, “cute-ness” and well-filled tummies. As they say, “a picture speaks a thousand words”, so let our pictures speak for themselves.
Weiheng

Update on our recent publications :-)

Vinh — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:43:37 +0000

Some results of our former honours students Wu Jiang, Chew Ying Xia and Lee Li Juan have been published or just accepted by Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, Inorganica Chimica Acta and Organometallics. In addition, Basu’s 3rd paper has just been published in European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry in a special NHC issue, while his 4th paper has recently been accepted by Organometallics. Han Yuan’s 8th paper appeared in Dalton Transactions and her 9th paper has just been accepted by Organometallics as well. Click on “Publications” for the titles of these papers. Well done and congratulations to everyone.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Vinh — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 10:00:17 +0000

It is lunar new year and lots of water has flown down the Kallang River since the last entry. Many things have happened as well. A new semester has started and heavy teaching duties have kicked in. Last year, I spent the whole of November at the National Taiwan University as a visitor (see previous post). In December I also went as part of a NUS delegation to Brisbane for a NUS-UQ symposium and in January, I went to Kyoto for a Japan-Singapore Catalysis Meeting. Quite a lot of travelling, but overall it was very fruitful and I had lots of fun.

NTU visit 03.11.08-01.12.08

Vinh — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 08:16:29 +0000

In November 2008 I visited the chemistry department of the National Taiwan University (NTU) as part of our NUS-NTU interdepartmental exchange program that started in early 2007. After touching down at the Taoyuan International Airport on the 3rd of November, I was welcomed by administrative officer Emilie Hui-Chen Hsu and a young and talented postdoctoral researcher of the department chairman Prof Pi-Tai Chou, who drove me to my accommodation and helped me with the check-in. For my stay, the chemistry department of NTU had arranged a nice room in the Howard International House, which also included breakfast. The next morning, Emilie, who was always available to help me out, met me in the Hotel Foyer and showed me the way to the Chemistry Department, which was only about 10 min walking distance away. I met up with Prof P.-T. Chou and after a good conversation, he hosted a welcome lunch with the attendance of Prof Sheng-Hsien Chiu, Emilie and 3 NUS undergraduate exchange students, who were taking NTU modules also as a part of this exchange program. After the lunch I was shown my visiting office, which was equipped with a desktop computer, color laser printer and a couch with table for casual discussions. Prof S.-H. Chiu, who is a very successful young scientist in the area of supramolecular chemistry focusing on rotaxanes, showed me the department and his research labs. Then he brought me to see Prof Jwu-Ting Chen and Prof Shiuh-Tzung Liu, two world renowned organometallic chemists, whom I have already met earlier at the ICOMC in Rennes 2008. Both of them do fantastic organometallic chemistry either on the area of complexes bearing ditopic nitrogen-donors and/or N-heterocyclic carbenes and their applications in catalysis. After a casual chat, Prof J.-T. Chen brought me to see Prof Ying-Chih Lin, who told me about his very interesting research about C-C bond making and breaking in Ru-vinylidene complexes. During the next few days, I could work in my office and also occasionally met up with Profs S.-H. Chiu, J.-T. Chen and S.-T. Liu for casual lunches and dinners. In the meantime, Prof J.-T. Chen also arranged for a lecture-tour at some other Taiwanese universities.
On the Friday 14.11.08, I attended the department meeting cum lunch chaired by Prof P.-T. Chou, during which I was officially introduced to NTU staff members. In the afternoon, Prof P.-T. Chou also hosted my research seminar to students and colleagues. The seminar was well attended and both students and colleagues actively asked questions, commented and made very good suggestions on my N-heterocyclic carbene research. Students and staff members found my slides very useful and asked for a copy, to which I happily agreed. After my seminar, I was also invited to a department tea with NTU staff and some NTU emeritus professors to celebrate the university’s 80’s anniversary. The celebration was extended to a department dinner in the Howard International House.
In the following days, I visited and gave talks at several universities and at Academia Sinica in or nearby Taipei. My visit to the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) on the 17.11.08 was hosted by Prof Chien-Tien Chen, who also showed me his impressive research on supramolecular cation-sensors. At NTNU I also had good research discussions with Profs I-Jy Chang, Minghey Shieh and Way-Zen Lee. The next day on 18.11.08, I took the speed-train to Taichung and met Prof Hon Man Lee, who hosted my visit to the National Changhua University of Education (NCUE). Prof H. M. Lee is also working in the area of N-heterocyclic carbenes, and we could exchange some thoughts on our common research area. He also took good care of me and showed me around their campus before sending me off to Taipei at the train station. We agreed that my next visit to NCUE would be longer so that I can see more of Changhua and surroundings.
On 20.11.08, Prof Jiann T’suen Lin hosted my visit to Academia Sinica, where I also met and director Prof Yu-Tai Tao and had fruitful discussions with Drs and Profs Tiow-Gan Ong, Kuang-Lih Lu, Fen-Tair Luo, Shih-Sheng Sun, Shin-Guang Shyu and Ling-Kang Liu. In particular, I was impressed by the research facilities of this world renowned research institute. During my visit, I also had the opportunity to meet Prof Sunny Chan, who also attended my seminar talk and asked very useful questions for me to reflect upon. My next destination was the beautiful Tanshui campus of the private Tamkang University, which I visited on 24.11.08. Prof Hsiu-Fu Hsu was my host and prior to my research seminar I had the opportunity to meet and discuss with Profs Bo-Cheng Wang, Tzenge-Lien Shih and Wen-Jwu Wang. The attendance of my talk was great and I was happy to answer many questions from the very attentive students. Later, graduate students of Prof Hsu’s group also brought me around the beautiful campus and we had an informal group dinner, which marked the end of my visit.

The last destination of my lecture tour was the National Tsinghua University (NTHU) on 26.11.08, which was hosted by Prof Yun Chi. I met him in his office and he first explained his research on true-blue light emitting Ir-complexes bearing some NHC ligands, and I could get new insights their applications in an fascinating area new to me. After my talk, he showed me around the campus and we had a nice dinner, before I headed back to Taipei.
Besides the numerous academic and scientific interactions mentioned above, I also had the opportunity to meet other staff members of NTU chemistry, such as Profs Chung-Yuan Mou, Wang Yu, Tien-Yau Luh, Richard P. Chen, Bih-Yaw Jin, Yeun-Min Tsai, Chao-Tsen Chen, Lee-Chiang Lo, Chun-Chung Chan, Hung-Wen Li, Soofin Cheng and King-Chuen Lin either during informal lunches or just in the chemistry department building. Outside university life, I could experience the every-day life in Taipei and surroundings by visiting various night markets and some tourist’s attractions including Shilin, Shida, Gongguan, Longshan temple, Danshui, Taipei 101, Chiang Kai-Shek memorial hall, National Palace Museum, Yangmingshan, Beitou, Keelung, Jiufen etc.
Overall, I enjoyed my academic visit at the National Taiwan University to the fullest, made many new friends and am very grateful for the hospitality that I received throughout my stay. In particular, I was impressed with the high quality research conducted at NTU and their high-quality students and am looking forward to establish collaboration in near future to strengthen the ties between NTU and NUS.

Highly cited and Top 25 hottest articles :-)

Vinh — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:15:52 +0000

Our paper “Solvent-controlled selective Synthesis of a trans-configured Benzimidazoline-2-ylidene Palladium(II) Complex and Investigations of its Heck-type catalytic activity” (J. Organomet. Chem. 2005, 690, 3854-3860) has been recognised as a ‘top 50′ most cited article from Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, as published 2005-2008.

In addition, Basu’s and Han Yuan’s papers below ranked 3rd (January-March 08) and 2nd (July-September 2007) of the top 25 hottest articles from the Journal of Organometallic Chemistry.

Au(I) and Au(III) complexes of a sterically bulky benzimidazole-derived N-heterocyclic carbene
Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, Volume 693, Issue 3, 1 February 2008, Pages 374-380
Jothibasu, R.; Huynh, H.V.; Koh, L.L.

Pd(II) complexes of a sterically bulky, benzannulated N-heterocyclic carbene and their catalytic activities in the Mizoroki-Heck reactionJournal of Organometallic Chemistry, Volume 692, Issue 17, 1 August 2007, Pages 3606-3613
Han, Y.; Huynh, H.V.; Koh, L.L.

A new academic year!

Vinh — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:50:16 +0000

A new academic year has started and with it comes the usual yearly change in our research team. Our 5 honours students have successfullly graduated and, except for Hong Lee, all have left the group to venture into new areas. Hong Lee is pursueing his PhD degree as a member of our the group. All the best to you all.

In addition, we welcome 5 new honours students into our team. Work hard and succeed.

Merlion Project Award

Vinh — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:33:32 +0000

Our Merlion collaborative project with Prof Christophe Darcel from “Sciences Chimiques de Rennes” is the only chemistry project selected for the year 2008 by the French Embassy in Singapore. With this award both teams will receive funding for overseas travels to setup a collaboration.