Sergio Sopeña, PhD student under the supervision of Prof. Arjan Kleij (ICIQ), has defended his PhD Thesis entitled “Organocatalytic transformations of carbon dioxide and cyclic carbonates” (assigned to the department of Analytical & Organic Chemistry of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili) publicly in March the 22nd at the ICIQ Auditorium.
The members of the evaluation committee were: Prof. Benjamin R. Buckley – Loughborough University, UK; Dr. Marcos Suero – ICIQ; Dr. Giulia Fiorani – Ca’Foscari University of Venice, Italy.
Dr. Sopeña with the deliberation Committee. From left to right, Dr. García Suero, Prof. Kleij, Dr. Sopeña, Prof. Buckley and Dr. Fiorani.
Abstract
The following thesis describes the development of new transformation based on CO2 and the improvement of the efficiency and selectivity of previously reported synthetic protocols. Moreover, this thesis explores the potential of organocatalysis in the valorization of CO2 through the synthesis of cyclic carbonates and its transformation into carbamates.