Norbert W. Mitzel
2018; Wiley; Volume: 57; Issue: 24 Linguagem: Alemão
10.1002/anie.201712874
ISSN1521-3773
Tópico(s)Coordination Chemistry and Organometallics
ResumoAngewandte Chemie International EditionVolume 57, Issue 24 p. 6973-6974 Author ProfileFree Access Norbert W. Mitzel First published: 18 January 2018 https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201712874AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Graphical Abstract “My worst nightmare is to be reincarnated as an earthworm, olm, lawyer, or tax consultant. My favourite place on earth is the Altipiano delle Pale di San Martino in the Dolomite Mountains of Belluno ...” This and more about N. Mitzel can be found on page 6973 – 6974. Norbert W. Mitzel The author presented on this page has published more than 10 articles in Angewandte Chemie in the last 10 years, most recently: “Intramolecular π–π Interactions in Flexibly Linked Partially Fluorinated Bisarenes in the Gas Phase”: S. Blomeyer, M. Linnemannstöns, J. H. Nissen, J. Paulus, B. Neumann, H.-G. Stammler, N. W. Mitzel, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 13259; Angew. Chem. 2017, 129, 13443. The work of N. W. Mitzel has been featured on the inside cover of Angewandte Chemie: “Trimethylaluminum: Bonding by Charge and Current Topology”: H.-G. Stammler, S. Blomeyer, R. J. F. Berger, N. W. Mitzel, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 13816; Angew. Chem. 2015, 127, 14021. Date of birth: July 14, 1966 Position: Professor of Inorganic and Structural Chemistry, University of Bielefeld E-Mail: mitzel@uni-bielefeld.de Homepage: www.uni-bielefeld.de/chemie/arbeitsbereiche/ac3-mitzel/ ORCID: 0000-0002-3271-5217 Education: 1991 Undergraduate degree, Technische Universität München (TUM) 1993 PhD with Prof. H. Schmidbaur, TUM 1994–1996 Postdoctoral work with Prof. D. W. H. Rankin 1997–2000 Habilitation (mentor: H. Schmidbaur), TUM Awards: 1994 Marie Curie Fellowship; 1996 Bayerischer Habilitationsförderpreis; 1999 ADUC Prize; 2000 Heisenberg Fellowship, DFG Current research: Lewis acid chemistry (poly Lewis acids, frustrated Lewis pairs); weak interactions (intramolecular dative bonds, London dispersion interactions); selective metallations (lithiation reactions), structural chemistry (gas-phase electron diffraction including method development and scientific instrument construction, in situ crystal growth, X-ray diffraction, NMR methods) Hobbies: Mountain biking, cinema, pottery, artisanry, art My worst nightmare is to be reincarnated as an earthworm, olm, lawyer, or tax consultant. My favourite place on earth is the Altipiano delle Pale di San Martino in the Dolomite Mountains of Belluno. The most amusing chemistry adventure in my career was the observation that triethylgallium starts giving off small flashes of light when being frozen in liquid nitrogen or after warming it again. My three top films of all time are L'âge d′or (Buñuel), Die Blechtrommel (Schlöndorff), Morte a Venezia (Visconti), Delicatessen (Jeunet und Caro), Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet (Lynch), Kill Bill and From Dusk Till Dawn (Tarantino), Film d'amore e d'anarchia and Camorra (Wertmüller), Carnage (Polański), Nostalghia and Offret (Trakowski), … oh, its already more than three—I love cinema! The downside of my job is the incredible amount of (mostly superfluous) bureaucracy, which is dreamed up by university management and administration, ministry bureaucrats, but also the submission systems of various journals, just to distract us—with quite some success—from science and teaching. The biggest problem that scientists face today is that their work is considered to be less relevant for society than that carried out in the cultural sector, despite the fact that science is part of human culture and generates objects and concepts of elegance and beauty. What I look for first in a publication is —in particular if something very exciting and really new is announced—the experimental section. By looking critically at the use of measured quantities and the overall care taken, I can get a feeling about whether I can trust the whole report. My favourite piece of research is the synthesis of bismuth hydride by Eberhard Amberger, a true masterpiece of the inorganic art of experimentation! When I'm frustrated, I ride my mountain bike for a few hours, and have at the latest after half an hour a lot of fun and a clear head. My not-so-secret passion is mountain biking and tricky, high alpine trails if possible with perfect panorama views. I chose chemistry as a career because … originally my intention was to become an architect; however, instead of constructing the very big, I am now constructing the very small. My best investment was a bicycle helmet, as otherwise I could not have invested anything for the last 25 years. If I were not a scientist, I would be a potter, a cook, a hobbyist and inventor, an explorer, or the Pope (but only for infallibility!). The worst advice I have ever been given was (during my habilitation) to look for a more suitable job to support a family. How has your approach to chemistry research changed since the start of your career? Apart from the fact that I can spend less and less time in the lab, as I am occupied with more and more nonscientific duties, I feel that I became more willing to accept that nature does not permit us to realize all our ideas. Previously, I was prepared to double and triple my efforts to change conditions and approaches and often faced a lot of frustration if nature resisted realizing my ideas. However, in the meantime I accepted that I have to change my concepts or the target if the seemingly obvious way to a certain goal does not work. How do you think your field of research will evolve over the next 10 years? Concerning structural methods, we will see a refinement of techniques, and structural methods for solution and gas-phase studies in particular will see rapid progress. Such new structural tools will widen our approach to chemistry, which is presently biased by the dominance of the structural elucidation of single crystals. We will learn a great deal about the relevance of weak interactions and cooperative effects on structure, reactivity, and selectivity. Concerning preparative chemistry, this is more difficult to answer, as I generally like to work on several different areas. Nevertheless, I remember frequently the words of one of my organic chemistry professors at the TUM in the late 1990s: “Nowadays organic synthesis is a solved problem; we are in principle able to synthesize practically all structures we can draw.” What a fallacy: I see every day that my capability to dream up new structures is not covered by this sentence; synthesis, both organic and inorganic, is by far not a solved problem. My five top papers: 1“Tetranitromethane: A Nightmare of Molecular Flexibility in the Gaseous and Solid States”: Y. Vishnevskiy, D. S. Tikhonov, J. Schwabedissen, H.-G. Stammler, R. Moll, B. Krumm, T. M. Klapoetke, N. W. Mitzel, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 9619; Angew. Chem. 2017, 129, 9748. Who would have thought that such an old molecule could still hide something interesting? However, it emerged as the hardest nut ever to be cracked by us in a structural-chemistry sense. New gas-phase structural analysis methods had to be developed and the phase transition plus twinning in the crystalline solid was exceptionally demanding—kudos to the co-workers! 2“From Bidentate Gallium Lewis Acids to Supramolecular Complexes”: J. Horstmann, M. Hyseni, A. Mix, B. Neumann, H.-G. Stammler, N. W. Mitzel, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 6107; Angew. Chem. 2017, 129, 6203. From a whole series of papers on poly-Lewis acids, this is one of our best. It shows how a certain amount of selectivity can be achieved in recognition of base molecules, even if they have extended structures. However, the way to true high selectivity still remains far off. It requires the synthesis of easily accessible, donor-free frameworks with directed functions of defined spatial arrangement and easy functionalizability. 3“A Neutral Silicon/Phosphorus Frustrated Lewis Pair”: B. Waerder, M. Pieper, L. A. Körte, T. A. Kinder, A. Mix, B. Neumann, H.-G. Stammler, N. W. Mitzel, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 13416; Angew. Chem. 2015, 127, 13614. I like the concept of frustrated Lewis pairs (FLP) very much (many thanks to Doug Stephan!) as it shows how cooperativity in chemistry works. This work showed that neutral silicon is also capable of acting as a Lewis acid in FLPs. This opens (hopefully) a wide area of new applications of the second-most-abundant element on earth. The FLP concept may be a key to design more complicated structures that allow performing (catalytic) transformations with elements that were so far playing no role in this business. 4“Lewis-Base Induced Reductions in Organolanthanide Chemistry”: D. Bojer, A. Venugopal, B. Neumann, H.-G. Stammler, N. W. Mitzel, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010, 49, 2611; Angew. Chem. 2010, 122, 2665. This was an excursion into lanthanide chemistry, which is still fascinating for me, because we started with a serendipitous development and could relatively quickly develop a systematic picture of alkyl-group degradation in a field of chemistry in which we were completely inexperienced. I learned from this that fresh ideas and an unprejudiced approach is equally as important as experience and detailed expertise. 5“Three-Membered Ring or Open Chain Molecule—(F3C)F2SiONMe2 a Model for the α-Effect in Silicon Chemistry”: N. W. Mitzel, K. Vojinović, R. Fröhlich, T. Foerster, D. W. H. Rankin, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 13705. We investigated geminal interactions for a long time, but when we understood the system behind them, we were able to strengthen them systematically; this work shows how much silicon atoms interact with their “second coordination sphere”. With the Si−O−N three-membered ring that has a dative Si−N bond, we found a isolable prototype for the α-effect in silicon chemistry, although the situation for the technologically important α-silanes turned out to be more complicated. Volume57, Issue24June 11, 2018Pages 6973-6974 ReferencesRelatedInformation
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