Biography
Pierre BRAUNSTEIN has developed a synthetic chemistry marked by the desire to understand, in order to better control, the fundamental and applied molecular chemistry of transition metals, relying on the synergy of ligand-metal interactions and the creation of new chemical bonds. He further developed the concept of hemilability, which plays a key role in reactivity and homogeneous catalysis, and extended it to bimetallic chemistry. Laying the foundations for bimetallic silicon chemistry, he described the first examples of bridging alkoxysilyl ligands and intramolecular migration of a silyl ligand from one metal to another.
His contributions to heterometallic cluster chemistry spanned conceptual, synthetic and applied aspects, with their use as early as 1982 as precursors for bimetallic nanoparticles with remarkable properties in heterogeneous catalysis.
His work thus covers the development of new concepts in molecular chemistry, applications in homogeneous catalysis (oligomerization of ethylene, activation of alkanes, transfer hydrogenation of ketones, dehydrogenating coupling of stannanes, activation and use of CO2) and the preparation of nanomaterials from molecular precursors.
Link to Curriculum Vitae