Gian Paolo Chiusoli #

L’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei ha il dolore di annunciare la scomparsa del Socio Nazionale della Classe di Scienze Fisiche, Matematiche e Naturali Prof. Gian Paolo Chiusoli avvenuta in Parma il 2 febbraio 2013.

Curriculum vitae#

Born Treviso (Italy), 7 June 1923
Professor, Industrial Organic Chemistry, University of Parma, Viale delle Scienze, 43100 Parma. Tel.(521)905554, 905555; FAX (521)905472

Working for almost three decades in Industry Gian Paolo Chiusoli has set up the first basic research in an Italian industrial chemical laboratory, the Donegani Research Institute at Novara. Here he discovered new selective catalytic syntheses based on multiple activation of simple molecules such as carbon monoxide, acetylene and carbon dioxide under mild conditions. He became Director of the Donegani Institute in 1966. Next he moved to the University of Parma (1975), where with another group he found new vanguard techniques of chemistry, based on the use of metals in catalytic reaction sequences suitable for the selective formation and functionalization of organic molecules.

During the industrial period he has set up basic research in Chemistry for the first time in an Italian research laboratory. He discovered new methods for the construction of complex organic molecules under the catalytic action of metal complexes in ordered sequences. He further extended the concept during the Academic period with the discovery of several new reactions based on palladium or rhodium catalysis.

He is the author of more than 250 papers in international Journals and of 127 industrial patents.

He received prizes for his research activity from Italian Chemical Society (1972), from Accademia dei Lincei (1984), from the Organometallic Division (1992), and from Federchimica (1997). In 1989 he received a medal from the Ministry of Education. In 1993 he was dedicated a special volume of the Journal of Organometallic Chemistry. He is or was a member of the Emeritus Editorial board of the Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, Transition Metal Chemistry, Gazzetta Chimica Italiana. Since 1989 he is a member of the National Academy of Lincei Since 1999 he is Emeritus Professor of the University of Parma, where I continues to work.

Main innovations

• Nickel-catalyzed sequential insertion reactions: Gazz. Chim. Ital., 89, 1332 (1959); Angew.Chem., 72, 74(1960); Synthesis, 509 (1973); Acc. Chem. Res. 6, 422 (1973).
• C-C coupling of allylnickel complexes: Tetrahedron Lett.,1591 (1963); Chim. Ind. (Milan), 43, 365 (1961); Ang.Chem.Int.Ed.Engl., 17, 353 (1978).
• Reformatski reaction with CO2: Chem. Ind. (London), 1457 (1966.)
• Carboxylation of organic substrates with CO2 promoted by alkali phenoxides : Chem. Comm., 618 (1966); Gazz. Chim. Ital., 103, 105 (1973).
• Cyclization of dienoic acids to phenols : Proc. Chem. Soc., 310 (1963).
• Oxidative carbonylation of acetylene : Chem. Ind. (London), 977 (1968).
• Coupling of acrylonitrile to adiponitrile on cobalt(0): Chem. Comm., 1515 (1968).
• Asymmetric carbonylation of styrene at room temperature and atmospheric pressure: J. Organomet. Chem., 236, C31 (1982)).
• Chelation-assisted reactions - Rearrangement of allyl 3-butenoate :J.C.S.Chem.Comm., 793 (1977); J. Mol. Cat., 41, 75 (1987)); J. Chem. Soc. Perkin Trans. 1, 1347 (1994)).
• Arylation via aroyl chlorides: Trans. Metal Chem., 4,398 (1979)).
• Multiple insertions terminated by H (delayed hydrogenolysis): J. Organomet. Chem., 199, C21 (1980)).
• Oxidative carbonylation of styrene : J. Organomet. Chem., 181, C14 (1979).
• Catalysis by palladium(0) of catalysis of diene addition to double bonds by rhodium(I): J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Comm.,1303 (1990)).
• Metallacycle-promoted reactions. Cobalt(0) metallacycles as catalysts: J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Comm., 1632 (1990))
• Metallacycle- promoted reactions. Aromatic and alifatic C-H activation (first paper: J. Organomet. Chem., 233, C21 (1982); Pure Appl. Chem., 62, 623 (1990)).
• Palladium(IV) metallacycles: J. Organomet. Chem., 346, C27 (1988); Gazz. Chim. Ital., 123, 1 (1993)).
• Synthesis of pyrrolediacetic acid by oxidative rbonylation : Synthesis, 262 (1989).
• Combination of palladium-catalyzed oxidative carbonylation with reduction in a single process: J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Comm., 2429 (1994).
• Carbonylation of alkynes to beta-lactones and lactams: J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Comm., 1429 (1994); Tetrahedron Lett. 36, 7495 (1995)).
• Palladium-catalyzed multi-component reactions to form heterocyclic rings: J. Organomet. Chem., 371, C51 (1989); Tetrahedron Lett., 35, 5919,5923 (1994).
• Direct incorporation of carbon dioxide into amines: J. Chem. Soc.Chem. Comm. 1669-1700 (1999); J. Chem Soc Perkin Trans. 1541-1546 (1998).
• Sequential reactions of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide: Chem. Comm. 1381-1382 (1999); J. Mol. Cat. A Chemical 143, 297-310 (1999).
• Catalytic carbon-carbon coupling through C-H activation: Coord. Chem. Rev. 254, 456-459 (2010).

The problem of Darwinian evolution in Chemistry has been examined recently: Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 20, 199-209 (2009)

Chiusoli also co-edited with Peter Maitlis a book on Metal-catalysis in Industrial Organic Processes published by RSC in 2006 and 2008