RICHARD F. HECK

摘要

Richard F. Heck, a giant in the field of organic chemistry, died on October 9, 2015. Beginning in the late 1950's, Heck envisioned that as the art of organic synthesis grew there would be a need for catalytic, organometallic-mediated bond-forming reactions that were tolerant of a wide range of functional groups. Research investigations led him to the Pd(0)/Pd(II) cycle of oxidative addition and reductive elimination, by which carbon-X bonds are catalytically converted to carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds. His investigations laid the groundwork for all catalytic, organometallic, bond-forming processes that are used currently in modern organic synthesis.