Arjan W. Kleij

Institut Català d'Investigació Química

Experimental Sciences & Mathematics

MSc (with honors) and PhD (Cum Laude) from the University of Utrecht (Netherlands). In 2002 he moved to Spain as a NWO TALENT fellow with Javier de Mendoza, followed by another postdoc appointment at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands) working with Joost Reek. He also held various scientific positions in the industry working as a project leader (Avantium) and senior research scientist (Hexion). In 2006, he returned to Spain as an ICREA Researcher and ICIQ Group Leader, and was promoted to ICREA Research Professor in 2011. He is member of the advisory board of Current Organic Chemistry (2014-), ChemSusChem (2016-), Journal of CO2 Utilization (2017-), and Molecules (2017-). Guest editor for Catal. Sci. & Technol. (2014), ChemSusChem (2016) and ASC (2018); chairman of the Carbon Dioxide Conversion Catalysis conference in Albufeira (Portugal) in 2016 & 2020, chair of the EUGSC-4 conference in 2019. Total citations >8400 and current h-index of around 51.


Research interests

The research of my group focuses on the valorization of small molecules (including CO2) into value-added chemicals and materials. We design new and more sustainable catalytic methods for their conversion and use in organic synthesis. As a key enabling technology, we use homogeneous catalysis approaches based on metal complexes and/or organocatalysts, and investigate important process features such as catalyst recycling, energy/material efficiencies and overall selectivity/reactivity profiles. In all these endeavors, we wish to solve challenging stereoselective and enantioselective transformations including those focusing on the preparation of allylic & propargylic compounds featuring quaternary stereocenters.

Selected publications

– Guo W, Kuniyil R, Gomez JE, Maseras F & Kleij AW 2018, ‘A Domino Process toward Functionally Dense Quaternary Carbons through Pd-Catalyzed Decarboxylative C(sp(3))-C(sp(3)) Bond Formation’, Journal Of The American Chemical Society, 140, 11, 3981 – 3987.

– Xie J, Xue S, Escudero-Adan EC & Kleij AW 2018, ‘Domino Synthesis of alpha,beta-Unsaturated gamma-Lactams by Stereoselective Amination of alpha-Tertiary Allylic Alcohols’, Angewandte Chemie-international Edition, 57, 51, 16727 – 16731.

– Guo W, Gomez JE, Cristofol A, Xie J & Kleij AW  2018, ‘Catalytic Transformations of Functionalized Cyclic Organic Carbonates’, Angewandte Chemie-international Edition, 57, 42, 13735 – 13747.

– Sopeña S, Cozzolino M, Maquilón C, Escudero-Adán EC, Martínez Belmonte M & Kleij AW 2018, ‘Organocatalyzed Domino [3+2] Cycloaddition/Payne-Type Rearrangement using Carbon Dioxide and Epoxy Alcohols’, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., vol. 57, 35, pp. 11203-11207.

Selected research activities

* Highlight in an Angewandte Chemie Author Profile

* Main organizer of symposium S49 “Catalytic Valorization of Carbon Dioxide” at the ICCC-2018 in Sendai (Japan)

* Visiting Professor Dalian (China)

* Invited Guest Editor (Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis)

* Selected Invited lectures: ICOMC-2018 (Florence), ICCC-2018 (Sendai), XXVII RSEQ Bienal Organic (Santiago), 6th Conference on CO2 as Feedstock for Fuels, Chemicals & Polymers (Cologne), Small Molecule Workshop (University of Venice), Plastics are Future Symposium (Aimplas, Valencia), ACCIÓ “Smart Chemistry Specialization Strategy” (Barcelona)