Ben Feringa

Ben Feringa

Professor of Organic chemistry and molecular sciences
University of Groningen

Ben Feringa

Department

Synthetic Organic Chemistry - Stratingh Institute for Chemistry

Contact information

Room
Nijenborgh 4

Email address
b.l.feringa@rug.nl

Key expertises

Organic Chemistry, Catalysis and Synthesis, Molecular Nanotechnology, Chemistry Systems

About me

The urgent need to develop novel chemistry for the sustainable industrial processes and products of the future. Specifically I would like to discover novel waste free catalytic processes like direct coupling strategies, electrochemical methods for synthesis and introduce smart and responsive functional materials.

About my research

Discovery of chiral phosphoramidite ligands for catalytic enantioselective C-C bond formation and hydrogenation. In particular the development of conjugate addition and allylic alkylation with excellent stereocontrol. Anti-Markovnikov Wacker oxidation, low energy, low waste catalytic cross coupling with organolithium reagents and direct catalytic amine alkylation with alcohols. The design of chiroptical molecular switches and unidirectional rotary motors that enables the design of dynamic functional molecular systems. This is the basis for smart materials, photopharmacology, responsive catalysts and molecular machines.