Guillaume Lefèvre has already been awarded an ERC Starting Grant (2020-2025) for his project DoReMI (DOminating REdox Mechanisms in Iron-mediated C-C bond formations: reactivity, new paradigms and applications) on the optimization of the redox properties of new iron complexes applied to the creation of C-C bonds. He is also the winner of the 2023 CNRS Talents Bronze Medal and the 2023 SCF Catalysis Division Prize. This distinction is awarded for his research in organometallic chemistry and homogeneous catalysis.

Portrait. Guillaume Lefèvre holds a PhD from ENS and joined the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA, team of Dr. Thibault Cantat) as a Research Fellow (CNRS) in September 2014. Then in 2019, he joins Chimie ParisTech – PSL in the i-CLeHS laboratory in the Catalysis, Synthesis of Biomolecules and Sustainable Development (CSB2D, team of Dr. Virginie Vidal) team where he develops new projects related to the reactivity of non-noble metals in catalysis, with a particular interest in iron chemistry and in the use of physical methods applied to the understanding of the mechanisms involved in these transformations.

Current research. Today, Guillaume Lefèvre is working on the development of new organometallic species of iron that are particularly reactive as well as on their cataytic properties. One of his objectives is to use these species in processes applicable to organic synthesis, some of which may lead to the obtention of targets of industrial interest.

Recent results. Recently, Guillaume Lefèvre and his collaborators have described in the journal ACS Catalysis the synthesis and use of a non-innocent iron complex of exceptional stability and its applications in catalysis. These objects, behaving as electron reservoirs, usually tend to decompose very quickly, which is not the case in this example. Other applications are currently being finalized.

Guillaume Lefèvre explains :”The approach I wish to follow in my research is to attach great importance to the understanding of reaction mechanisms in organometallic catalysis in order to then exploit the properties of a given molecular system to the maximum. I am of course very happy that this approach is highlighted by the CNRS, and I would like to thank all the colleagues and students with whom I have worked in recent years in the context of these projects ».

Publication references

ACS Catalysis 2023, 13, 4882-4893; Dalton Trans. 2022, 51, 10674-10680; Organometallics 2021, 40, 19, 3253-3266; Inorg. Chem. 2021, 60, 7991-7997.

For more information on Guillaume Lefèvre’s group: https://lefevreresearchgroup.com/group-members/guillaumelefevre/