Nordic Consortium for CO2 Conversion

Activities

This page presents the current and upcoming activities organised by the consortium. For past events, check our Previous Activities page.

Annual Meeting 2023

24th-27th April 2023, Saariselkä 🇫🇮

Helsinki University is welcoming us for our last Annual Meeting. The meeting will take place at Santa’s Hotel Tunturi in Saariselkä, Finland.

Preliminary Programme:

Preliminary prpgramme AM 2023

Practical Information:

Arrival/Departure: the programme allows for the attendees to take the flights below to and from the Ivalo airport.

Flights from/to Ivalo airport

Scientific sessions: the sessions will cover the research themes of the NordCO2 consortium presented below. The time allocated for each presenttion is 30 minutes in cluding time for discussion. The programme will be updated when the sessions are scheduled.

  • CO2 to Chemicals 
  • CO2 to Fuels 
  • Incorporation of catalysts into solid suports

Outdoor Activities / Free time: Saariselkä offers a range of outdoor activities, including downhill skiing. For organising/participating to outdoor activities, please contact our local contacts at Helsinki University, Joe and Jussi. Outdoor activities will not be covered by NordCO2.
For those who wish to stay inside during “afternoon free time”, the meeting room will be accessible on Tuesday (25th) but not on Wednesday (due to a meeting of the NordCO2 Steering Committee). All double rooms have been booked with saunas (but not the single rooms).

Cocktail Poster Session: as per our tradition, we will have an evening poster session, this time with a standing dinner. You are free to dress up as nice as you wish..or not!

NordCO2 Quiz: for the very first time, we invite to participate to a quiz about all things NordCO2.

Monthly Seminars

The NordCO2 Monthly Seminars is a series of lectures by experts in the fields relevant to the NordCO2 consortium as well as student talks about their recently published works. The seminars are organised each month by a different institution from the NordCO2 consortium, and the lectures are often accessible to the public. The seminars are held in Zoom, and registration links are in the description of each event.

January 2023: UiT the Arctic University of Norway 🇳🇴 31st January 2023, 14:00-16:00 CET
Zoom meeting
Register here!

The seminar will consist of two talks, by Dr. Ashot Gevorgyan from the Department of Chemistry at UiT The Arctic University of Norway and by Dr. Brian V. Popp from the Department of Chemistry at West Virginia University, WV, USA.

Ashot obtained his MSc degree in pharmacology in 2011 at Yerevan State University, Armenia. After completing his MSc, he moved to Germany to pursue doctoral studies in the group of Prof. Peter Langer, University of Rostock. In 2015, he earned his PhD working on homogeneous catalysis and C-H functionalization of heterocycles. He then accomplished a 2 year postdoctoral studies in the group of Dr. Viktor O. Iaroshenko at the Center of Molecular and Macromolecular Studies in Lodz, Poland. In 2018, Ashot moved to UiT The Arctic University of Norway, where he carried out further postdoctoral studies with Prof. Kathrin H. Hopmann and Prof. Annette Bayer. In 2021, he established his group at the department of chemistry, UiT The Arctic University of Norway. His research interests cover several directions in green chemistry including CO2 fixation and application of biomass-derived chemicals for organic synthesis.
Title of the lecture:
“CO2 fixation in the arctic”
Abstract:
CO2 is the most sustainable carbon source. The main obstacle limiting the widespread use of CO2 in the synthesis of chemicals is its pronounced inertness. Our research is primarily focused on the development of new methodologies for the C-C bond forming reactions involving CO2 (see figure below).1-5 For instance, we could demonstrate that for the hydrocarboxylation of certain olefins the use of expansive ligands and catalysts is not necessary.1,2 On top of that, for the first time we have shown that CO2 capture and utilization can be performed in renewable solvents.3 In another study we have developed a selective methodology for the C-H carboxylation of unactivated arenes with CO2.4 The methodologies developed by us can be applied for the production of pharmaceuticals and for the late-stage functionalization of value-added products. In my talk, I will summarize these findings and will present our perspectives on the development of this field of research.
References
  1. A. Gevorgyan, M. F. Obst, Y. Guttormsen, F. Maseras, K. H. Hopmann, A. Bayer, Chem. Sci. 2019, 10, 10072-10078.
  2. M. F. Obst, A. Gevorgyan, A. Bayer, K. H. Hopmann, Organometallics 2020, 39, 1545-1552.
  3. A. Gevorgyan, K. H. Hopmann, A. Bayer, ChemSusChem 2020, 13, 2080-2088.
  4. A. Gevorgyan, K. H. Hopmann, A. Bayer, Chem. Eur. J. 2020, 26, 6064-6069.
  5. L. Pavlovic, M. Pettersen, A. Gevorgyan, J. Vaitla, A. Bayer, K. H. Hopmann, Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2021, 663-670.


Brian received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemistry from Wright State University in 2001 and 2002, working with Prof. Vladimir Katovic. He continued his graduate work in mechanistic inorganic/organometallic chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the mentorship of Prof. Shannon Stahl. He received a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry in 2007 for his work unraveling the details of the oxygenation of reduced-Pd species relevant to homogeneous aerobic oxidation catalysis. In 2008, he moved to Rice University as a J. Evans Attwell-Welch Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Prof. Zach Ball where developed enzyme-like approaches for site-selective peptide and protein modification using dirhodium-metallopeptides. In 2011, he began his independent career as a tenure-track assistant professor in the C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry at West Virginia University (WVU) and, in 2019, was promoted to associate professor. He has established an active, externally funded research group focused on developing new and improving existing synthetic methods using earth-abundant transitional metal catalysts. Since 2019, he has also been the Chemistry Director of Graduate Studies and, since 2016, co-led a National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site in Chemistry at the WVU Chemistry Department.
Title of the lecture:
“Difunctionalization of alkenes with boron and CO2
Abstract:
The hetero(element)carboxylation of unsaturated organic substrates is useful due to the installation of a carboxylic acid, using the C1 feedstock CO2, as well as a synthetically versatile hetero(element)-carbon bond. In 2016, we reported the first method to achieve 1,2-borylative-carboxylation (boracarboxylation) of an alkene (vinyl arene).1 The mild method uses redox-neutral NHC-copper(I) catalysis and a single atmosphere of CO2 to obtain boron-functionalized α-aryl carboxylic acids, including novel functionalized-NSAIDs such as bora-ibuprofen and bora-naproxen. The products can be further elaborated through a variety of reactions at the C–B bond. In recent years, understanding CO2 pressure effects and use of secondary additives, such as mono- and bis-phosphine ligands, have led to the marked broadening of the substrate scope.2,3 Mechanistic insights from well-defined, isolable copper complexes and complimentary computational studies have revealed important details about the operative reaction pathways.4,5
References
  1. Butcher, T. W.; McClain, E. J.; Hamilton, T. G.; Perrone, T. M.; Kroner, K. M.; Donohoe, G. C.; Akhmedov, N. G.; Petersen, J. L.; Popp, B. V. Org. Lett. 2016, 18, 6428-6431.
  2. Perrone, T. M.; Gregory, A. S.; Knowlden, S. W.; Ziemer, N. R.; Alsulami, R. N.; Petersen, J. L.; Popp, B. V. ChemCatChem 2019, 11, 5814-5820.
  3. Knowlden, S. W.; Popp, B. V. Organometallics 2022, 41, 1883-1891.
  4. Baughman, N. N; Akhmedov, N. G.; Petersen, J. L.; Popp, B. V. Organometallics 2021, 40, 23-37.
  5. Baughman, N. N; Popp, B. V. Comment Inorg. Chem. 2020, 40, 159-175.


 
May 2023: University of Bergen 🇳🇴 Coming soon!
 
August 2023: Stockholm University 🇸🇪 Coming soon!
 
Ocotber 2023: University of Iceland 🇮🇸 Coming soon!