Dr Benjamin R Buckley                           
 
 


Lecturer in Organic Chemistry (RCUK Fellow)

BSc MMU, PhD Lboro, MRSC, FHEA


Telephone:   

Office +44  (0)1509228752

Lab +44 (0)1509224126                                           

                                                                                                E-mail: b.r.buckley@lboro.ac.uk

Appointments


* 2002-2004 Post-Doctoral Research Associate with Professor Philip C. B. Page

  1. *2004-2007 Research Fellow in Organic Chemistry, Loughborough University

  2. *2007-2012 Research Councils UK Fellowship, Loughborough University


Dr Buckley completed his degree in Manchester working with Dr Julia Dickinson and Professor Ian J. S. Fairlamb on the synthesis of alpha pyrone mimics and then moved to Loughborough to carry out a PhD with Professor Philip C. B. Page in the area of catalytic asymmetric epoxidation. Following this Dr Buckley worked as a PDRA with Professor Philip. C. B. Page for a further year working on the synthesis of N-Heterocyclic carbene ligands with Dr Steven D. R. Christie. In 2004 he was appointed as a university research fellow and in September 2007 as a lecturer in organic chemistry (RCUK Fellow).


Current Research Projects:

The application of Copper(I) Ladderane complexes in organic synthesis

(Cross-Disciplinary Project with Dr Sandie Dann and Prof. Harry Heaney).

Project funded by Loughborough University, EPSRC (Summer Studentship), HEC Pakistan and the Nuffield Foundation.


Sunlight Driven Carbon Dioxide Utilization

(Cross-Disciplinary Project with Dr Upul Wijayantha)

Project funded by Loughborough University


Escalating CO2 emissions due to increasing fossil fuel consumption is generally acknowledged as the major contributor to global warming.  Anticipated pressures on fossil fuel resources in the coming decades also mean that raw materials for the chemical industry must be found that can reduce our reliance on fossil fuel-based feedstocks.  We have recently developed an electrosynthetic method for converting CO2 into cyclic carbonates that are useful feedstocks for the chemicals industry. Crucially the process operates at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature. We are currently in the process of converting this system to run under sunlight driven photoelectrolysis and are targeting high impact products such as the next generation carbon neutral fuels.



Electrosynthesis of Cyclic Carbonates from Epoxides and Atmospheric Pressure Carbon Dioxide

Benjamin R. Buckley, Anish P. Patel and K. G. Upul Wijayantha.

Chem. Commun. 2011, 47, 11888-11890.


Novel Routes to Oxindoles

Project funded by Loughborough University, the EU lifelong learning programme and the Royal Society


The Application of Plasma Driven Processes To Synthesis

(Cross-Disciplinary Project with Dr. Felipe Iza)

Project funded by Loughborough University


Thiadiazolidine 1-Oxide Systems for Phosphine-Free Palladium-Mediated Catalysis

Project funded by Loughborough University

Traditionally, phosphine ligands have been used to stabilize reactive palladium intermediates, and excellent results have been reported for Pd-catalysed Mizoroki–Heck reactions.  Sterically bulky monophosphines,diphosphines, cyclometalated phosphines, and phosphites are particularly good ligands for palladium. The air-sensitivity of these types of ligands, however, precludes their use in a variety of synthetic applications. Therefore, the development of phosphine-free palladium catalysis is a topic of enormous interest. To this end we have reported several highly active catalyst systems with thiadiazolidine 1-oxides as ligands for palladium in the Mizoroki–Heck reaction. Excellent yields of stilbenes derived from aryl iodides and bromides have been achieved using as little as 0.00002 mol% catalyst. The ligand/palladium system can be stored as a stock  solution open to air at room temperature with no observable loss of activity for a period of several months.


                      



The following agencies are thanked for their financial/in kind contributions to our work:


         
           


   
         


                 


       
           
                    
            



Recent Publications:







2012



“Potassium Mono-peroxysulfate”

Benjamin R. Buckley

Encyclopedia of Reagents For Organic Synthesis, Philip L. Fuchs, Ed; Wiley 2012.








“Mechanistic Investigations of Copper(I)-Catalysed Alkyne–Azide Cycloaddition Reactions”

Benjamin R. Buckley and Harry Heaney

Topics in Heterocyclic Chemistry, 2012, in Press.






  2. “Mannich Reactions of Alkynes: Mechanistic Insights and the Role of Sub-Stoichiometric Amounts of Alkynylcopper(I) Compounds in the Catalytic Cycle”

  3. Benjamin R. Buckley, Amna N. Khan and Harry Heaney

Chem. Eur. J., 2012, 18, 3855-3858.


 




2011


  1. A Pictet-Spengler Cyclization Methodology for the Construction of Non-Proteinogenic

  2. Tetrahydroisoquinoline Quaternary Amino Acids

  3. Philip C. Bulman Page,  Genna A. Parkes,  Benjamin R. Buckley,  J. Steven Wailes

  4. Synlett, 2011, 3005-3007.


 




  1. Electrosynthesis of Cyclic Carbonates from Epoxides and Atmospheric Pressure Carbon Dioxide

  2. Benjamin R. Buckley, Anish P. Patel and K. G. Upul Wijayantha.

  3. Chem. Commun. 2011, 47, 11888-11890.


 




“Organocatalysis”

Benjamin R. Buckley and Mohamed M. Farah

Annual Reports Section B: Organic Chemistry 2010, 107, 102-117.






  1. A Rapid and Highly Diastereoselective Synthesis of Enantiomerically Pure

  2. (4R,5R)- and (4S,5S)- isocytoxazone

  3. Benjamin R. Buckley, Philip C. Bulman Page and Vikkie McKee.

  4. Synlett, 2011, 1399-1402.


 




  1. “Heterogeneous Catalytic Reactions “On Water”

  2. Using Stable Polymeric Alkynylcopper(I) Pre-Catalysts: Alkyne-Azide Cycloaddition Reactions”

Benjamin R. Buckley, Sandra E. Dann, Harry Heaney and Emma C. Stubbs

Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2011, 770-776.


2



2010


“Organocatalysis”

Benjamin R. Buckley and Stephen P. Neary

Annual Reports Section B: Organic Chemistry 2010, 106, 120-135.






  1. “Thiadiazolidine 1-oxide Systems For Phosphine-Free Palladium-Mediated Catalysis”

  2. Benjamin R. Buckley and Stephen P. Neary

Tetrahedron 2010, 66, 7988-7994.





  1. “The First Enantiomerically Pure Thiadiazol-3-one 1-oxide and Thiatriaza-indene 3-Oxide Systems Chiral at the Sulfur atom” Benjamin R. Buckley, Stephen P. Neary and Mark R. J. Elsegood

Tetrahedron:Asymmetry, 2010, 21, 1959-1962.


 




  1. “Experimental Evidence for the Involvement of Dinuclear Alkynylcopper(I) Complexes in Alkyne-Azide Click Chemistry” Benjamin R. Buckley, Sandra E. Dann, and Harry Heaney

Chem. Eur. J., 2010, 16, 6278 – 6284.


 




  1. “Alkynylcopper(I) polymers and their use in a mechanistic study of alkyne–azide click reactions”

Benjamin R. Buckley, Sandra E. Dann, Daniel P. Harris, Harry Heaney and Emma C. Stubbs

Chem Commun, 2010, 46, 2274-2276.


 




  4. An Aromatic Amination Approach Towards Ancistrocladinium A/B

  5. Benjamin R. Buckley, Steven D. R. Christie, Mark R. J. Elsegood, Claire M. Gillings,

  6. Philip C. Bulman Page and William J. M. Pardoe.

  7. Synlett, 2010, 939–943.


 



  1. “New Stable N-H Oxaziridines - Synthesis and Reactivity”

Sylvain Blanc, Céline A. C. Bordogna, Benjamin R. Buckley, Mark R. J. Elsegood and Philip C. Bulman Page.

Eur. J. Org. Chem., 2010, 882-887.





Book Contibutions




External Activities

External Activities:


  Member of the Society in Industry Young Chemists Panel



  Science ambassador for STEMNET leicestershire


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