In the afternoon of September 15, the "Frontiers of Elemento-Organic Chemistry - Nickel Catalyzed Organic Synthesis"  hosted by the State Key Laboratory of Elemento-organic Chemistry was successfully held in Shixian Building. The meeting was chaired by Prof. Lijun Xiao from the Key Laboratory and more than 150 teachers and students attended the symposium.

The symposium invited Prof. Jianrong Zhou from the Shenzhen Graduate School of Peking University, Prof. Guoyin Yin from Wuhan University and Prof. Qingwei Zhang from the University of Science and Technology of China to deliver three exciting academic speeches to the teachers and students. Prof. Zhou first introduced the traditional palladium-catalyzed Heck reaction and elaborated on the methods for achieving palladium-catalyzed asymmetric Heck reaction. Subsequently, he delved into the important progress of nickel-catalyzed Heck reaction and hydrogen transfer reaction. Prof. Yin demonstrated the use of nickel-catalyzed chain transfer addition reactions to achieve a series of high value and high selectivity conversions of simple olefins. Prof. Zhang presented a challenging asymmetric conversion reaction based on nickel catalysis including complex elements such as phosphorus and sulfur. After each presentation, the attending teachers and students had a full exchange and interaction with the experts around the conference theme.

In traditional organic synthesis, precious metal catalysts such as palladium and platinum play important roles. However, their high cost and limited sustainability limit their widespread application. The emergence of nickel catalytic technology provides a feasible solution to this problem and promotes the development of synthesis and conversion which is different from traditional precious metals. These breakthrough achievements are expected to have significant impacts on areas such as drug discovery, chemical synthesis and sustainable energy. This meeting aims to showcase the latest research achievements of domestic scholars in the field of "Nickel-catalyzed organic synthesis" to teachers and students.

The "Frontiers of Elemento-Organic Chemistry " is a series of academic activities organized by Key Laboratory starting from 2022. Each session specifies a theme and invites famous domestic and foreign experts and scholars as well as laboratory teachers and students for academic exchange and discussion. The aim of the symposium is to create an international chemistry exchange platform for teachers and students, strengthen academic exchange and cooperation in laboratories and enhance the international academic influence of the Key Laboratory.