Title: C1 Chemistry: Catalytic Carbonylation and Cyanation  

Speaker: Researcher Lin He (Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences)  

Invited by: Prof. Liangbin Huang  

Time: November 6, 2026 (Friday), 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM  

Venue: Meeting Room 105 of the Shaw Engineering Building, Wushan Campus  

Organizer: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Biography  

 Lin He is a Researcher and PhD Supervisor at the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received his bachelor’s degree from Lanzhou University in 2005, and then worked for two years at Sichuan Mianyang Lier Chemical Co., Ltd. and the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. After obtaining his doctoral degree from Fudan University in 2012, he carried out three and a half years of postdoctoral research in the group of Prof. Matthias Beller at the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis, Germany. He returned to China in 2016 to launch his independent research group, and was awarded the Thieme Chemistry Journals Award in 2022.

 His long-term research is dedicated to the high-value utilization of C1 resources. Based on the development of innovative catalytic systems, he realizes highly selective synthesis of specific high-value products via catalytic carbonylation and cyanation using CO, CO₂ and CN⁻ as C1 feedstocks. He has published over 60 academic papers, including 1 in Science, 9 in Angewandte Chemie International Edition and 4 in ACS Catalysis. He holds 8 authorized Chinese patents and 2 international patents. As principal investigator, he has taken charge of multiple projects, such as the National High-level Talent Program, the Cultivation Project under the Major Research Plan of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, General Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Cooperative Fund of the Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Key Project of the Joint Fund for Enterprise Collaborative Innovation and Development, and the Basic Research Innovation Group Program of Gansu Province.

 Selected Recent Publications Wang, J. H.; Wang, S. C.; Wei, Z. H.; Wang, P. J.; Cao, Y. W.; Huang, Y.; He, L.; Lei, A. W. Science 2024, 386, 776. Cao, Y. W.; Yang, J.-G.; Deng, Y.; Wang, S. C.; Liu, Q.; Shen, C. R.; Lu, W.; Che, C.-M.; Chen, Y.; He, L.* Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020, 59, 2080. Huang, Y.; Mao, X. N.; Yuan, G. T.; Zhang, D.; Pan, B. B.; Deng, J.; Shi, Y. R.; Han, N.; Li, C. R.; Zhang, L.; Wang, L.; He, L.; Li, Y. Y.; Li, Y. G.* Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 15844. Shi, Y. R.; Hu, Y.-F.; Ye, J. Y.; Zhong, G.; Xia, C. G.; Liu, Z. P.; Huang, Y.; He, L.* Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2024, e202401311. Zhang, J.; Kang, X. S.; Yan, Y. C.; Ding, X.; He, L.; Li, Y. G. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2024, e202315777.

 Abstract  

 With the global energy structure shifting toward diversification, C1 chemistry is gaining increasing importance. Building a diverse C1 chemical industrial system based on C1 resources such as CO and CO₂ has become a key research and development area, known as the chemistry that creates the future. Among relevant transformations, carbonylation reactions, which introduce carbonyl groups into organic molecules to produce oxygen-containing compounds via catalytic approaches, represent a typical example of reactions with high atom economy and process economy, and have attracted extensive attention from both academia and industry.

 Integrating his research background bridging homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, the speaker has expanded interdisciplinary research and designed heterogeneous catalysts with tailored coordination structures, to conduct research on carbonyl synthesis for producing high-value multi-carbon oxygenated chemicals using CO and CO₂ as carbonyl sources.

 Besides carbonylation, cyanation is also an important transformation process in the field of C1 chemistry. In particular, hexamethylenediamine, the polymerization monomer of nylon 66 (a polymer of adipic acid and hexamethylenediamine), is produced via hydrogenation of adiponitrile. However, the mainstream three-step butadiene cyanation technology for adiponitrile production has long been monopolized by companies such as Invista. Original innovation is therefore of vital importance. The speaker has organized tripartite cooperation among research institutes, universities and enterprises to carry out research on the efficient one-step preparation of adiponitrile via double hydrocyanation of butadiene, aiming to provide technical support for the production of key monomers in China's nylon industry.

 Announced by School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.