Qingquan Lu, a PhD candidate at Wuhan University’s Chemistry and Molecular Science College, has published his findings on synthesizing molecules without metal residue. The research result was published in the Angewandte Chemie, International Edition a world-renowned journal in chemistry. Marcius Bell, a German Academy of Sciences scholar, wrote comments on the research.

The research discovered an attractive and operationally simple intermolecular oxysulfonylation method to construct secondary and tertiary b-hydroxysulfones with readily available reactants, in which b-hydroperoxysulfone was isolated as an important intermediate. The novel method does not require any additional initiators and uses sulfinic acid to achieve dioxygen activation, while occurring under transition-metal-free conditions. One practical consequence is that the transformation is more sustainable and environmentally friendly than previous methods.

Qingquan Lu graduated from the Chinese University of Science and Technology in 2011 and is pursuing a doctorate at WHU under Professor Aiwen Lei. He is dedicated to his scientific research and has won numerous awards including being the only recipient of Wuhan University’s Baogang Outstanding Student Grand Prize in 2013.