Patrick Holland

About

Patrick Holland is the Conkey P. Whitehead Professor of Chemistry at Yale University. His research focuses on compounds containing inexpensive metals such as iron and cobalt, with the aim of understanding their reactions in detail and increasing their potential for use in catalysis. His group prepares highly reactive molecules, including those with weak metal-ligand multiple bonds and open reactive sites, to study their mechanisms and applications. A significant part of his research addresses nitrogen fixation, utilizing atmospheric nitrogen as a resource, with relevance to sustainable fertilizer production and understanding natural enzymes that convert nitrogen into ammonia. His work also explores converting atmospheric nitrogen into organic compounds, producing fuel from solar energy, enzymes with carbon dioxide-reducing active sites, and catalytic functionalizations of alkenes. Recognized as a leader in organometallic mechanisms, Professor Holland has edited a volume of Comprehensive Organometallic Chemistry IV and provides interdisciplinary training in synthesis, inorganic chemistry, organometallic chemistry, mechanistic techniques, and spectroscopy.

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Organic chemistry
• Photochemistry
• Computational chemistry
• Engineering
• Process engineering
• Inorganic chemistry
• Waste management
• Environmental science
• Combinatorial chemistry

Selected publications

• Catalytic hydrogen atom transfer to alkenes: a roadmap for metal hydrides and radicals

  Chemical Science · 2020 · 349 citations

  Hydrogen atom transfer from a metal hydride (MHAT) has emerged as a powerful, if puzzling, technique in chemical synthesis. In catalytic MHAT reactions, earth-abundant metal complexes generate stabilized and unstabilized carbon-centered radicals from alkenes of various substitution patterns with robust chemoselectivity. This perspective combines organic and inorganic perspectives to outline challenges and opportunities, and to propose working models to assist further developments. We attempt to…

  DOI

• Coupling dinitrogen and hydrocarbons through aryl migration

  Nature · 2020 · 131 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Potential Economic Feasibility of Direct Electrochemical Nitrogen Reduction as a Route to Ammonia

  ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering · 2020 · 123 citations

  The Haber–Bosch process produces ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen gases in a globally important energy-intensive process that uses coal or natural gas as a fuel and hydrogen source. Direct electrochemical ammonia synthesis from nitrogen and water using renewable energy sources presents an alternative to the Haber–Bosch process that would be more sustainable. Additionally, the different production structure of direct electrochemical nitrogen reduction technology suggests a supply chain alternat…

  DOI

• Fe/Thiol Cooperative Hydrogen Atom Transfer Olefin Hydrogenation: Mechanistic Insights That Inform Enantioselective Catalysis

  Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2024-06-14 · 23 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Asymmetric hydrogenation of activated olefins using transition metal catalysis is a powerful tool for the synthesis of complex molecules, but traditional metal catalysts have difficulty with enantioselective reduction of electron-neutral, electron-rich, and minimally functionalized olefins. Hydrogenation based on radical, metal-catalyzed hydrogen atom transfer (mHAT) mechanisms offers an outstanding opportunity to overcome these difficulties, enabling the mild reduction of these challenging olef…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Opportunities for insight into the mechanism of efficient CO2/CO interconversion at a nickel-iron cluster in CO dehydrogenase

  Chem · 2024-05-16 · 12 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Mechanistically guided improvement in radical alkene coupling by base metal catalysts

  NIH · $1.2M · 2019–2024

• Low-Coordinate Synthetic Models for Iron-Sulfur Enzymes

  NIH · $6.4M · 2004–2027

• SusCHEM: Catalytic Alkene Transformations Using High-Spin Cobalt Complexes

  NSF · $500k · 2015–2019

Frequent coauthors

• William W. Brennessel

  University of Rochester

  247 shared

• Brandon Q. Mercado

  Yale University

  243 shared

• Eckhard Bill

  Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion

  154 shared

• R.J. Lachicotte

  150 shared

• Thomas R. Cundari

  University of North Texas

  134 shared

• C.J. Flaschenriem

  112 shared

• William B. Tolman

  Washington University in St. Louis

  106 shared

• Jeremy M. Smith

  Indiana University Bloomington

  104 shared

Education

• PhD, Chemistry

  University of California

  1997

• A. B., Chemistry

  Princeton University

  1993

Awards & honors

• NSF CAREER Award (2002)
• Sloan Fellowship (2003)
• Fulbright Scholar (2012)
• Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists (2013)
• Fellow of the AAAS (2014)

Similar researchers at Yale University

• William Jorgensenh-123
• Jon Ellmanh-111
• Mark Johnsonh-85