Jie WU

Bio

WU Jie joined NUS (Chemistry) in 2015 as an Assistant Professor. Prior to that, he was a Senior Scientist in Snapdragon Chemistry Inc, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT. He has extensive experience in photochemical transformation using CO₂ as an abundant feedstock; and continuous flow synthesis involving gaseous/liquid slug for large scale chemical production. His research is focused on developing green and sustainable chemical synthesis by integrating several novel technologies: i) photocatalysis (clean energy), ii) C–H and Si–H activation (atom-, step-economic synthesis), iii) natural gas-involved transformation (inexpensive feedstocks), iv) flow technology (sustainable process). His team’s long-term goal is to advance otherwise difficult or ineffective chemical reactions using advanced flow techniques, as well as to develop new strategies to aid automated multistep synthesis.

Education

Postdoctoral Fellow (Organic Chemistry and Chemical Engineering), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2015
PhD Chemistry, Boston University, 2012
BSc Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, 2006

Selected Awards & Honours

2020          The Distinguished Lectureship Award, The CSJ Asian International Symposium
2019          Thieme Chemistry Journal Award
2019          Asian Core Program Lectureship Award, Korea
2018          Young Chemist Award, Department of Chemistry, NUS
2018          Asian Core Program Lectureship Award, Thailand and Taiwan
2017          Asian Core Program Lectureship Award, China
2017          4th Green & Sustainable Manufacturing Award, The GSK-Singapore Partnership
2013-14    SkolTech Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Research Interests

continuous-flow synthesis
photochemistry
green chemistry
automated synthesis

Selected Publications

C. K.; Toh, R. W.; Lin, T. T.; Luo, H.; Hor, T. S. A.*; Wu, J.*(2019) Metal-Salen Molecular Cages as Efficient and Recyclable Heterogeneous Catalysts for Cycloaddition of CO₂ with Epoxides at Ambient Conditions. Chem. Sci.,10, 1549-1554. (Highlighted by Synfacts 2019, 15, 0540) https://doi.org/10.1039/C8SC05019H
Hou, J.; Ee, A.; Cao, H.; Ong, H.-W.; Xu, J.-H.; Wu, J.*(2018) Visible-Light-Mediated Metal-Free Difunctionalization of Alkenes with CO₂ and Silanes or C(sp³)-H Alkanes. Chem. Int. Ed.,57, 17220-17224. (Selected as VIP paper in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.; Highlighted by Synfacts 2019, 15, 0198, X-MOL, and WeeChem) https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201811266
Hou, J.; Li, J.; Wu, J.*(2018) Recent Development of Light-Mediated Carboxylation Using CO₂ as the Feedstock. Asian J. Org. Chem.,7, 1439-1447. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajoc.201800226
Hou, J.; Ee, A.; Feng, W.; Xu, J.; Zhao, Y.*; Wu, J.*(2018) Visible-Light-Driven Alkyne Hydro-/Carbocarboxylation Using CO₂ via Iridium/Cobalt Dual Catalysis for Divergent Heterocycle Synthesis. Am. Chem. Soc.,140, 5257-5263. (Highlighted by X-MOL, featured in Organic Chemistry Portal) https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.8b01561
C. K.; Wu, J.;*Hor, T. S.;* Luo, H.* (2016) A Binary Catalyst System of a Cationic Ru-CNC Pincer Complex with an Alkali Metal Salt for Selective Hydroboration of Carbon Dioxide.Chem. Commun.,52, 11842-11845. https://doi.org/10.1039/C6CC06278D
Wu, J.; Yang, X.Q.; He, Z.; Mao, X.W.; Hatton, T. A.; Jamison, T. F. (2014) Continuous Flow Synthesis of Ketones from Carbon Dioxide and Organolithium or Grignard Reagents. Chem. Int. Ed.,53, 8416-8420. (Featured by Synfacts 2014, 10, 1191) https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201405014
Wu, J.; Kozak, J. A.; Simeon, F.; Hatton, T. A.; Jamison, T. F. (2014) Mechanism-Guided Design of Flow Systems for Multicomponent Reactions: Conversion of CO₂ and Olefins to Cyclic Carbonates. Sci., 5, 1227-1231. https://doi.org/10.1039/C3SC53422G
Kozak, J. A.*; Wu, J.*; Su, X.; Simeon, F.; Hatton, T. A.; Jamison, T. F. (2013) Bromine-Catalyzed Conversion of CO₂ and Epoxides to Cyclic Carbonates under Continuous Flow Conditions. Am. Chem. Soc., 135, 18497-18501(*Co-first author). https://doi.org/10.1021/ja4079094

Team