Chao-Jun Li

Chao-Jun "C.-J." Li, a Canadian chemist, is E. B. Eddy Professor of Chemistry and Canada Research Chair in Green Chemistry at McGill University, Montréal. He is known for his pioneering works in Green Solvent (organic reactions in water) and Green Syntheses (water/functional group-tolerating organometallics, C-H activation, and photochemistry).

Chao-Jun Li
Alma mater	Zhengzhou University (BSc) Chinese Academy of Sciences (MSc) McGill University (PhD) Stanford University (postdoctoral work)
Awards	1998 US NSF CAREER Award 2001 US Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award (Academic) 2007 Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) 2012 Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Sciences) 2012 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 2012 Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada 2015 Fellow of the American Chemical Society 2016 Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) 2020 Fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society 2020 Fellow of The European Academy of Sciences 2021 Humboldt Prize 2022 CIC Medal
Scientific career
Fields	Green chemistry, organic chemistry
Institutions	McGill University (2003-present) Tulane University (1994–2003)
Academic advisors	Tak-Hang Chan David Harpp Barry Trost
Website	http://www.cjlimcgill.ca/

Education

C.-J. Li was born in 1963, and obtained his BSc from Zhengzhou University (1979–1983), and completed his MSc. in organic synthesis at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (1985–1988) with Prof. T.H. Chan.^[1] He then moved to McGill University (Montréal, Québec) to do his PhD (1989–1992) with Prof. T.H. Chan again (and discovered the indium-mediated allylation reaction in water) along with Prof. David Harpp (working on organosulfur/selenium/tellurium chemistry), and went on a NSERC-funded postdoc with Prof. Barry Trost at Stanford University in the United States (1992–1994) (and discovered the so-called phosphine-catalyzed γ-Addition Reaction).

Career and research

C.-J. Li started as an assistant professor at Tulane University in 1994, and attained the title of Professor of Chemistry in 2000. He then moved in 2003 to McGill University, where he obtained a Canada Research Chair (Tier I) in Green Chemistry.^[2] He has also been the director of NSERC CREATE for Green Chemistry (2012–2018), the director of CFI Infrastructure for Green Chemistry and Green Chemicals (2008–2018) and has been the co-director of the FQRNT Center for Green Chemistry and Catalysis since 2009. He was the founding Co-Chair of the Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Network.

C.-J. Li's research encompasses various aspects of green chemistry applied to organic chemistry: organometallics, catalysis (thermal and light-based). Most notably, he is known for introducing water as a Green Solvent^[3] for various chemical reactions (C-H activation/Functionalization,^[4] Grignard type-reactions in water.^[5][6] Li originated the concepts of Aldehyde-Alkyne-Amine Coupling (A3 coupling reaction) and the cross dehydrogenative coupling (CDC Reaction, or C-H/C-H coupling, or oxidative C-H cross coupling). His work on GaN nanowires and nanoparticals as photocatalysts for the conversion of methane into benzene was covered by Phys.org in 2015, leaving prospects for hydrogen storage.^[7] Subsequently, his team showed that they were also able to convert methanol into ethanol,^[8] ethylene and cyclohexane. He also made breakthroughs in using hydrazones as organometallic surrogates in nucleophilic addition and cross-coupling,^[9] the direct amination of phenol derivatives.^[10] and the earliest report on fluorescence enhancement due to self-assembling (SAFE) in solution.^[11]

Selected publications

Reactions in water:

• Indium-mediated allylations in water^[12]
• The Barbier–Grignard-type alkylation of aldehydes using unactivated alkyl iodides in water^[13]
• The Barbier–Grignard-type arylation of aldehydes using unactivated aryl iodides in water^[14]
• Silver-Catalyzed Hydrogenation of Aldehydes in Water^[15]

A3 coupling reaction^[16][17]

Cross dehydrogenative coupling(CDC)^[18]

GaN Photocatalysts

• Photoinduced conversion of methane into benzene over GaN nanowires^[19]
• Direct catalytic methanol-to-ethanol photoconversion via methyl carbene^[20]
• Direct catalytic conversion of methane into cyclohexane (Methane Liquefaction)^[21]
• Direct catalytic conversion of methane into methanol or formic acid^[22]

Hydrazones as organo-metallic equivalent (HOME Chemistry):

• Carbonyls as alkyl carbanion equivalents for 1,2-nucleophilic additions, conjugate additions, and cross-couplings ^[23][24][25]