Josef Boronski

Professor and Head of Department of Chemistry at University of Liverpool Recruiting now: Professor and Head of Department of Chemistry on jobs.ac.uk. Click for details and explore more academic job opportunities on the top job board

Liverpool is hiring for a Professor who would also be Head of Chemistry. Application deadline Jan 4th. Interviews Feb 5th. I really like it here; maybe you would, too. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPQ019/p...

Incredibly grateful to @royalsociety.org for the award of a URF to support our research on alkaline earth metal-metal bonding!

Graphical abstract image for the Chemical Science paper titled All-Boron Analogue of Planar Benzene on an Osmium Template. The chemical structure shows a six membered boron ring in green side-on nu-6 coordinated to a pink osmium moeity representing osmium wiht a nu-5 coordinated C-5 methyl-5 ligand to make a sandwich complex. The title of the image reads boron analogue of benzene and there is a yellow circle in the corner with the words Pick of the Week.

This week's Chemical Science Pick of the Week is "All-Boron Analogue of Planar Benzene on an Osmium Template" by Eluvathingal Jemmis and Sundargopal Ghosh et al. from IIT Madras and IISc Bangalore.

Read it for free here: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

PhD Studentship in C–H Functionalisation Using Polymetallic Complexes at Imperial College London on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - PhD Studentship in C–H Functionalisation Using Polymetallic Complexes at Imperial College London, listed on FindAPhD.com

We are advertising for two PhD studentships in organometallic chemistry! Come and work with us @imperialchemistry.bsky.social from October 2026:
Advert 2) www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

PhD Studentship in Organometallic Beryllium Chemistry at Imperial College London on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - PhD Studentship in Organometallic Beryllium Chemistry at Imperial College London, listed on FindAPhD.com

We are advertising for two PhD studentships in organometallic chemistry! Come and work with us @imperialchemistry.bsky.social from October 2026:
Advert 1) www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

On Hull — Michael O'Neill A personal reflection on the closure of Hull’s Chemistry Department, where I held my first academic post.

It's been one year since my blog on the closure of Hull, which kind of blew up. A thread with some reflections on what's happened since then. 1/ www.michaeloneill.org/blog-1/2024/...

Excited to share our new preprint! 🥳
We developed a modular strategy to access small four-membered biradicaloids by trapping them in Mn and Co complexes. Many congratulations to Stefan and Michi for their successful efforts !

Thrilled to share the work of @clarencetankl.bsky.social and @antorna.bsky.social on elevating #sodium mediated deprotonative #borylation to #catalytic regimes with an insightful #mechanistic study in collaboration with Max Garcia Melchor @pubs.acs.org @unibe.ch

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

(2/2) ..I increasingly encounter faculty that will not support their own students/postdocs in fellowship applications due to perceived competition on science. Maybe I am just getting old but isn't the idea of our jobs to create great scientists that can go on and do even better science than we have?

TIRE CHANGE: First Mg(I) complex with a Cp* ligand enables facile ligand exchange. Reaction with RONa gives (BDI)Mg-MgOR and Cp*Na. This paves the way for syntheses of many new asymmetric Mg(I) complexes. @angew_chem onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

York Minster

A privilege to be back in York to deliver the McCamley Lecture. Many thanks to everyone in the Chemistry Department for their hospitality!

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/anie.202515545#

Our group's very first ACIE paper is out!🥳

Awesome work by Soti and a great cooperation with the Bittl group and @franemmerling.bsky.social.

Dedicated to @christianlimberg.bsky.social and Franc Meyer

@humboldtuni.bsky.social @manchester.ac.uk

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

First post, first publication!
I’m over the moon to share the first publication from our small research group! 🚀 pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a... @chemcomm.rsc.org
Jan explored a funky P=P-containing heterocycle and its reversible! bond activation chemistry, with DFT insights from Francesco. #newPI

20 years of FLPs! Check out this article published together with the pioneer of FLPs himself (Prof. Douglas Stephan) covering some of the highlights of FLP chemistry over the last two decades. pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Alkaline earth metals: heterometallic bonding The alkaline earth metals are notorious for their tendency to form ionic compounds of their dications. In recent years, however, chemists have found ways to kinetically skirt around the edges of…

🔓Don't miss this #OpenAccess Frontier article by Liam P. Griffin and @josefboronski.bsky.social outlining recent advances in heterometallic alkaline earth metals and pathways to future breakthroughs⬇️

pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

📍 @manchester.ac.uk, @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social 🧪

Ending the week on a high! Check out our comparison of manganate and magnesiate now published in ChemComm! Great team effort @bathchem.bsky.social with @tobiaskramer.bsky.social in understanding these elusive bimetallics!

A main-group metal carbonyl complex: Structure and isomerization to a carbene-stabilized tin atom In contrast to transition elements, s- and p-block metal compounds that coordinate carbon monoxide (CO) under near-ambient conditions are elusive. Here, we report an isolable, crystalline main-group m...

I am happy to share that our latest paper has been published in @science.org. In this work, we report the synthesis of novel tin carbonyl and carbene complexes. Thanks to all collaborators!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

@humboldt-foundation.de
@oxfordchemistry.bsky.social
@ox.ac.uk

Functional Al/Cd Heterometallics─From Controlled Al(I) Transfer to Nucleophilic Transfer of Cadmium Ions Low-valent cadmium compounds have remained largely unexplored as electron reservoirs, with no precedent for their use in reduction or bond activation chemistry. Here, we address this gap by integratin...

Thrilled to share a first publication of the group! We report on cadmium aluminyls that find application as Cd-nucleophiles and(!) Al(I)-Transfer reagents. Now out in @jacs.acspublications.org ! 🥳👍
Thanks a lot to @chemieverband.bsky.social for the generous funding. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Alkaline earth metals: heterometallic bonding The alkaline earth metals are notorious for their tendency to form ionic compounds of their dications. In recent years, however, chemists have found ways to kinetically skirt around the edges of these...

Liam Griffin and I have reviewed recent advances in the heterometallic bonding chemistry of the alkaline earth metals @daltontrans.rsc.org. It was fun to put this together, and we hope it's useful!
pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Reversible C–H Bond Activation of Unactivated Arenes by a Nickel-Silylene Complex A nickel-silylene complex is shown to reversibly activate benzene via C–H bond activation at ambient temperature. The benzene C–H bond formally adds across the Ni–Si core to form a nickel-silyl comple...

Reversible C–H Bond Activation of Unactivated Arenes by a Nickel-Silylene Complex - pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
So proud to congratulate first author Leon Gomm for his first paper in JACS. Thanks to Hui Zhu and Stefan Grimme for the ever helpful DFT calculations. @unibonn.bsky.social

Janus-Faced Reactivity of Heterobimetallic Al–Zn Complexes p-Block complexes containing unsupported metal–metal bonds can activate small molecules via mechanisms that complement and contrast with those of d-block metal complexes. Within this compound class, A...

Our groups first foray into heterobimetallic Zn/Al chemistry. Congratulations to Jake, Josef, Avantika, George, Nik and @millsgroupchem.bsky.social.

chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

Great stuff!

Arene Activation by Calcium Hydride/Zinc Amide Equilibration The β-diketiminato calcium hydride, [(BDI)CaH]2 (BDI = HC{(Me)CNDipp}2, where Dipp = 2,6-i-Pr2C6H3), reacts with [Zn{N(SiMe3)2}2] and [Zn(TMP)2] (TMP = 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidide) to provide labile...

Excited to see this work published today in @jacs.acspublications.org , fun chemistry and a real group effort here by @clairemcmullin.bsky.social , @moraleschem.bsky.social , Mary and big Mike! (@bathchem.bsky.social)

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Excited to share the latest work from David Anderson just accepted @angewandtechemie.bsky.social on the structure and applications of #sodium #neopentyl a donor free #organosodium #reagent soluble in #hydrocarbon solvents @unibe.ch

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

Congratulations, John!

🔥Excited to share our latest: "C(sp2)–H Bond Activation with a Heterometallic Nickel---Aluminium Complex” Now out in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social w/ @crimmingroup.bsky.social

Work done by PhD student, Joseph A. Zurakowski w/ Benedek Stadler & Mark Crimmin! 💪

tinyurl.com/3bbj56nw

🎉 Just out in Nature Comm @natcomms.nature.com

"Unleashing phosphorus mononitride"

👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Spearheaded by the Reinholdt group (Lund), we find that the elusive P≡N molecule finds new life in an Os complex and unlocks unique [NPS₂]²⁻, [NPCl]⁻, and aromatic [PN₄]⁻ species.

Fantastic stuff! Congratulations!

Stepwise Acetylene Insertion and Ammonia Activation at a Digallene and Diindene Sequential [2+2] cycloaddition reactions between acetylene and the digallene and diindene compounds (ETer)2 (E = Ga, In; Ter = 2,6-Dipp2-C6H3; Dipp = 2,6-diisopropylphenyl) are described. Careful con...

PDRA extraordinaire, Álvaro García-Romero, hits it out if the park again! Check out his most recent work out today in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social. Outstanding computational support by DFT master @isra-group.bsky.social! Further details here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Breaking Bonds at Tin(II): Reductive or Oxidative Addition? Here, the addition of H–H, Be–Be, B–B, and B–H bonds to SnII is studied by experimental and theoretical means. We report the first examples of B–B and Be–Be bond additions to a main group metal centr...

Breaking bonds at tin(II)! We've had a look at the spectrum of bond addition reactions, from reductive (Be-Be) to oxidative (Cl-Cl), and everything in between (B-B, B-H, H-H)
@angewandtechemie.bsky.social @maxdietz.bsky.social @amelia-swarbrook.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1002/anie...