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Anton Vidal-Ferran

Anton Vidal-Ferran

Universitat de Barcelona

Experimental Sciences & Mathematics

Anton Vidal graduated in Chemistry at the “Institut Químic de Sarrià” in 1987 and completed his PhD at the same institution in 1992 with Prof. P. Victory. Throughout the two post-doctoral appointments that followed (at the University of Cambridge with Prof. J.K.M. Sanders and the University of Barcelona with Prof. M.A. Pericàs) he studied topical and diverse areas of chemistry such as Supramolecular Chemistry and aspects of Enantioselective Catalysis. He had the opportunity to complement his academic background with the industrial experience gained during his tenure in a number of research departments at Bayer-AG (Leverkusen). Following the appointment as ICREA Research Professor (Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies) he started his independent research activities as a Group Leader at the ICIQ in September 2003. In October 2019, he moved as Research Professor to the Department of Inorganic and Organic Chemistry at the University of Barcelona.


Research interests

Our current objectives encompass developing efficient, reliable and selective catalytic systems for synthetic transformations of interest, and studying their use to prepare relevant products for the life science and fine chemical sectors. Crucial aspects of this work include the modularity of the catalytic systems, the versatility of the synthetic strategies for their preparation and the incorporation of supramolecular motifs (when appropriate) in the catalyst’s structure to achieve additional function, taking into account the issue of sustainability. In terms of the catalytic transformations under homogeneous conditions that are being studied, our research interests focus on generating value-added products from unsaturated compounds through pivotal chemical transformations such as stereoselective hydrogenations, hydroformylations, hydroalkoxylations, hydrovinylations and hydroborations and C-C couplings on non-halogenated substrates.

Selected publications

– Cabezas-Giménez J, Lillo V, Núñez-Rico JL, Corella-Ochoa MN, Jover J, Galán-Mascarós JR & Vidal-Ferran A, 2021, ’Differentiation of Epoxide Enantiomers in the Confined Spaces of an Homochiral Cu(II) Metal-Organic Framework by Kinetic Resolution’, Chem. – Eur. J., 27, 16956-16965

Vidal-Ferran A, 2021, ’Supramolecularly Regulated Enantioselective Catalysts’, in ’Supramolecular Catalysis: New Directions and Developments’, Ed. by van Leeuwen PWNM & Raynal M, 1st Edition, Wiley‐VCH GmbH, Germany, pp 591-603 (Print ISBN:9783527349029, Online ISBN:9783527832033)


Selected research activities

  • Funding of two research projects from the Spanish Government (Grants PID2020-115658GB-I00 and PDC2021-120826-I00), which secures the basal funding of the research group for the next 4 years. Funding of a collaborative project between the “Equipe Chimie des Polymères; Chimie Supramoléculaire de la SCF Sorbonne Université & CNRS Institut Parisien de Chimie Moléculaire” and our group (Grant ANR 2021 CE07 “AdECat”).
  • Principal investigator on a collaborative research program with COVESTRO AG for developing new catalysts for transformations of COVESTRO’s interest. Extension of the IP rights developed within this programme to the US (Vidal-Ferran A. et al. US20210053031)
  • Organizer and Chairman of the XII Young Investigator Workshop of the Division of Organic Chemistry of EuChemS YIW 2020 (Barcelona, 25th-26th November 2021)
  • Evaluator of projects and reviewer of articles for a number of editorial boards
  • Co-author of a chapter on Asymmetric Hydrogenation for the 4th Edition of the “Ojima’s Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis” book, which is a most used and pivotal reference work.
  • Student promotions: Ester Iniesta and Nuria Llorente (PhD Theses from the Rovira i Virgili University)
  • Supervision of 4 PhD students

ICREA Memoir 2021