Ulrich Fekl

Ulrich W. Fekl

Ph.D. | M.Sc. | Associate Chair, Research | Associate Professor |Chemistry | Organic and Inorganic Synthesis

Research Areas:

Fekl Research

Inorganic, Organic, and Organometallic Synthesis, Catalysis, Materials 

Research Profile:

We focus on transition metal complexes, where we are making fundamental contributions toward solving challenging problems in various areas, with applications in synthesis and materials. A theme of current interest are redox-active (‘non-innocent’) ligands, and how we can use their strange and unusual reactivity for new applications. Applications include reactions with alkenes and new cross-coupling reactions. Funded by a recent ACS-PRF (‘New Directions’) grant, we are also working on new diamondoid materials, based on adamantane and new adamantane functionalizations. We routinely work with highly air- and water-sensitive materials under high vacuum and protective atmosphere. Experimental work is complemented by quantum chemistry. We are using the SciNet supercomputer cluster for DFT computations.

Courses Taught:

CHM231H5, CHM331H5, and CHM436H5 (undergraduate); CHM1266H1 (graduate)

Publications

Recent:

Colette M. Macarios, Viki Kumar Prasad, and Ulrich Fekl “Heteroatom-vacancy centres in molecular nanodiamonds: A computational study of organic molecules possessing robust triplet ground states through -overlap” 2024, in revision. 

Kareem Abdur-Rashid, Shraman K. Saha, Jules Mugisha, Sam Teale, Sasa Wang, Meelad Saber, Alan J. Lough, Edward H. Sargent, and Ulrich Fekl “Organic Polar Crystals, Second Harmonic Generation, and Piezoelectric Effects from Heteroadamantanes in the Space Group R3m” Chem. Eur. J. 2024, 30, e202302998 

Viki Kumar Prasad, Freeman Cheng, Ulrich Fekl, and Hans-Arno Jacobsen“ Applications of noisy quantum computing and quantum error mitigation to “adamantaneland”: A benchmarking study for quantum chemistry” PCCP 2024, 26, 4071-4082

Fekl, U. “Covalent d-Block Organometallics: Teaching Lewis Structures and sd/sd2 Hybridization Gives Students Additional Explanations and Powerful Predictive Tools” J. Chem. Educ. 2021, 98, 3189-3206.

Suleiman, M., Taullaj, F. and Fekl, U. Group-IV-based selective C-H bond activation of a diamondoid— A density functional theory study” Int. J. Quantum Chem. 2021, 121, e26638.

Taullaj, F., Lough, A.J. and Fekl, U. “Platinum(IV) Complexes of a Bulky and Exceptionally Donating
Alkyl: 2-Adamantyl” Can. J. Chem. 2020, in print.

Mirabi, B., Church Poh, W., Armstrong, D., Lough, A. J. and Fekl, U. “Why Diorganyl Zinc Lewis Acidity Dramatically Increases with Narrowing C-Zn-C Bond Angle” Inorg. Chem. 2020, 59, 2621-2625.

Taullaj, F., Lough, A.J. and Fekl, U. “An iridium complex with an unsupported Ir—Zn bond: diiodido(η5-
pentamethylcyclopentadienyl)-bis(trimethylphosphane)-iridiumzinc(Ir—Zn) benzene hemisolvate” Acta Cryst. 2019, E75, 1824-1827.

Nguyen, N., Lough, A.J. and Fekl, U. “A molybdenum tris(dithiolene) complex coordinates to three bound
cobalt centers in three different ways” Acta Cryst. 2019, E75, 1261-1264.

Taullaj, F., Armstrong, D., Datta, S., Lough, A.J. and Fekl, U. “2‐Adamantyl Complexes of Platinum” Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2019, 1288-1291.

Harrison, D.J., Lough, A.J. and Fekl, U. “A new structural model for NiFe hydrogenases: an unsaturated
analogue of a classic hydrogenase model leads to more enzyme-like Ni—Fe distance and interplanar fold” Acta Cryst. 2018, E74, 1222-1226.

Gapinska, A., Lough, A.J. and Fekl, U. “Coordination compounds containing bis-dithiolene-chelated
molybdenum(IV) and oxalate: comparison of terminal with bridging oxalate” Acta Cryst. 2017, E73, 1202-1207.

Kraskouskaya, D., Cabral, A.D., Fong, R., Bancerz, M., Toutah, K., Rosa, D., Gardiner, J.E., de Araujo, E.D., Duodu, E., Armstrong, D., Fekl, U. and Gunning, P.T. “Characterization and application studies of ProxyPhos, a chemosensor for the detection of proximally phosphorylated peptides and proteins in aqueous solutions” Analyst 2017, 142, 2451-2459.

Moscattini, J., Lough, A.J. and Fekl, U. “C2-isomer of [Pd(tfd)]6 [tfd is S2C2(CF3)2] as its benzene solvate: a
new member of the small but growing class of homoleptic palladium(II) monodithiolenes in the form of hexameric cubes”
Acta Cryst. 2017, E73, 957-962.

Armstrong, D., Taullaj, F., Singh, K., Mirabi, B., Lough, A.J. and Fekl, U. “Adamantyl Metal Complexes: New Routes to Adamantyl Anions and New Transmetallations” Dalton Trans. 2017, 46, 6212-6217.

Daryanavard, M., Armstrong, D., Lough, A.J. and Fekl, U. “The First Palladium(IV) Aryldiazenido Complex: Relevance for C-C Coupling” Dalton Trans. 2017, 46, 4004-4008.

Taullaj, F., Armstrong, D., Lough, A.J. and Fekl, U. “Iridium Complexes Containing N-Donor-functionalized η1-Fluorenyl
Ligands” Polyhedron 2016, 108, 30-35.

Prack, E., O’Keefe, C.A., Moore, J.K., Lai, A., Lough, A.J., Macdonald, P.M., Conradi, M.S., Schurko, R.W. and Fekl, U.
“A Molecular Rotor Possessing an H-M-H "Spoke" on a P-M-P "Axle": A Platinum(II) trans-Dihydride Spins Rapidly Even at 75 K” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 13464-13467.

Daryanavard, M., Armstrong, D., Lough, A.J. and Fekl, U. “Extremely Facile Transformations of Tris(3,5-dimethylpyrazolyl)-borate: a Bidentate Nitrogen Ligand and a C2-Chiral Cation” Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2015, 3232-3235