10 Years Ago And Now: Hideki Yorimitsu

Chemistry – An Asian Journal speaks with authors about 10 years ago and now.

The journal celebrates its 10th volume in 2015. The year’s first issue features papers from the journal’s most frequent authors.
The journal Editors have asked these featured authors to provide a glimpse of themselves and how their world has changed over the past decade.

Interview with Hideki Yorimitsu

My favorite drink 10 years ago was … beer with my students.
And today … beer with my family.

My greatest motivation 10 years ago was … unveiling epoch-making organic reactions.
And today … achieving my dream that my students and postdocs as well as myself will continue to enjoy chemistry forever.

My most exciting discovery in the past 10 years has been … Pummerer annulation, which has made a contribution to the recent renaissance of organosulfur chemistry.

The most significant scientific advance of the past 10 years has been … the emergence of the science of atomic layers as well as the discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells.

I’m glad that … the range of chemistry that I can cover … has changed in the past 10 years.

Hideki Yorimitsu
Date of birth	January 22, 1975
Position	Associate Professor, Kyoto University, Japan
Homepage	http://kuchem.kyoto-u.ac.jp/shuyu/e/e_yorimitsu.html
Education	B.S. 1997, Kyoto University Ph.D. 2002, Kyoto University (Professor Koichiro Oshima) Postdoc 2002-2003, University of Tokyo (Professor Eiichi Nakamura)

Featured Article

Activator-Free Palladium-Catalyzed Silylation of Aryl Chlorides with Silylsilatranes,
Yutaro Yamamoto, Hiroshi Matsubara, Kei Murakami, Hideki Yorimitsu, Atsuhiro Osuka,
Chem. Asian J. 2014.
DOI: 10.1002/asia.201402595
Palladium-catalyzed silylation of aryl chlorides has been found to take place with a new class of disilane, silylsilatranes, under activator-free conditions. Experimental and computational studies have revealed that smooth silyl transfer from silylsilatranes to arylpalladium chloride is facilitated by strong and specific interaction between the Lewis acidic silatrane unit and the chloride. This paper contains important information about as yet unexplained transmetalation to realize activator-free cross-coupling reactions.