@HicksChem

Main Group/Organometallic Chemistry Research Group Leader @ANUchemistry. @arc_gov_au Future Fellow. Check out our website: https://xitter.cf/t.co/FKnKbsNtNp

 ANU Chemistry
Joined April 2018
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Check out Becca's latest paper on hydrogenation of C–C multiple bonds with simple calcium salts. No precious metal catalyst, no H2 gas, and no solvent - just CaH2, Ca(OH)2 and a ball mill! doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv.15…

Hydrogenation of C–C Multiple Bonds with Simple Calcium Salts | ChemRxiv

Hydrogenation is among the most widely used transformations in chemical synthesis, yet it typically relies on precious transition-metal catalysts, pressurised hydrogen gas and an excess of solvents....

chemrxiv.org
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ICCC2026 in Odense - what a great conference! So proud of the whole group who all presented brilliantly - and Liesa Eickhoff (@Leopoldina fellow) was even awarded a best talk prize. On my way back to the @RACInational Congress - can't wait to see everyone. @ANUChemistry
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4,5-Diaminofluorenes are tough targets. In our new @ChemicalScience paper, Emily & Fabian use group 13 radicals for skeletal editing - deleting oxygen from xanthenes to access them on gram scale. pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/Arti…
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Thanks to Elena and @MaxMassi75 for the beautiful photophysical measurements, to Gareth and @clairemcmullin for helping us work out the mechanism, and to Li Feng and Nick Cox for the EPR measurements.
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Bronte McCutcheon, Honours student @ANUChemistry, delivering a beautiful talk at the Mechanochemistry Workshop in Melbourne. Bring Mechanochemistry into organometallic and supramolecular chemistry.
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Now finished at JCU - the final stop on the @RACI_Inorganic Sargeson Lecture tour. Amazing place and a great group of people. Thank you so much to @peterjunk2 for hosting, and @VickiJunk for the morning walk. Hope to be back soon.
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I had a great time visiting UTas as part of the @RACI_Inorganic Alan Sargeson Lectureship. Thank you to Curtis Ho @citrus_67 for hosting. Onwards to Townsville for the next leg. Looking forward to visiting Peter Junk and team at JCU.
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TIRE CHANGE: First Mg(I) complex with a Cp* ligand enables facile ligand exchange. Reaction with RONa gives (BDI)Mg-MgOR and Cp*Na. This paves the way for syntheses of many new asymmetric Mg(I) complexes. @angew_chem onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/…
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Check out Fabian presenting his latest paper as part of Synthesis Workshop. @ANUChemistry
Synthesis Workshop@MatthewHorwitz111 Oct 2025
Tune in today to hear Dr. Fabian Kallmeier explain how to enhance the nucleophilicity of aluminum anions, which he recently published in @ChemicalScience, in a brand new Research Spotlight episode! Link: youtu.be/6XBF6Iqi3vE Key paper: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC02682B
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In 2017, Mike Hill and team published the remarkable nucleophilic alkylation of benzene with neutral calcium alkyl complexes. Here we report their anionic equivalents, and show a switch in reactivity to superbasic - deprotonating benzene, twice! doi.org/10.1002/anie.2025142…
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Well done to our @ANUChemistry team, Li Feng, @RH_Chem, @flynn_attard, Mori, Ali and @FabianKallmeier - a lot of work from a great group of people. And thank you to @angew_chem for the #hotpaper status.
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Replying to @HicksChem
@HicksChem and team at @ANUChemistry show that anionic calcium alkyl complexes act as superbases in the templated, double deprotonation of benzene #openaccess 🔓 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/…

Superbasic Anionic Calcium Alkyl Complexes: Templated Twofold Deprotonation of Benzene

A family of molecular anionic calcium alkyl complexes is described. Compared with their neutral analogues, these anionic systems show markedly higher basicity, exemplified by the templated twofold...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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Huge win for chemistry in Australia! Well done Richard @UniMelb
The Nobel Prize
@NobelPrize8 Oct 2025
BREAKING NEWS The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2025 #NobelPrize in Chemistry to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi “for the development of metal–organic frameworks.”
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Beautiful work by @GroupAldridge - watch out for BH3! Happy to have played our small part
Aldridge Group@GroupAldridge21 Sep 2025
A cautionary tale in catalysis! Alexa, Barnabé et al's paper on the implication (or otherwise) of aluminium hydrides in carbonyl hydroboration catalysis is just out as a 'hot paper' in @angew_chem doi.org/10.1002/anie.2025170… @OxfordChemistry @barnacleberger @GoicoecheaGroup
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Congratulations to our Honours student Max Les for being awarded a Best Poster Prize at OZOM15 in Brisbane! Not bad for his first conference 👏 ⁦@ANUChemistry⁩ ⁦@scienceANU⁩
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Room temperature, selective C-H activation of arenes with aluminium in seconds!. All you need is an even more reactive aluminyl anion. Check out Fabian and Gareth's latest paper just accepted in @ChemicalScience @ANUChemistry #ozchem doi.org/10.1039/D5SC02682B
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Catalytic methane functionalization and all it takes is... beryllium! We also compare the mechanisms of methane beryllation and borylation to reveal why Be finds it so easy @J_A_C_S @GroupAldridge pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jac…

Methane Beryllation Catalyzed by a Base Metal Complex

Abstract. The homogeneous catalytic functionalization of methane is extremely challenging due to the relative nonpolarity and high C–H bond strength of thi

pubs.acs.org
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A couple of years ago, we published the reductive coupling of CO by a dimeric anionic calcium hydride. Now, we finally understand the mechanism. Congrats to @Leopoldina postdoc Liesa Eickhoff on her first corresponding author publication. @ANUChemistry pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs…

Reductive Coupling of Carbon Monoxide by an Anionic Calcium Hydride: A Computational Mechanistic...

Abstract. We recently reported that a dimeric, anionic calcium hydride complex can perform the selective reduction and C–C coupling of carbon monoxide. Her

pubs.acs.org
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⁦@AnnieColebatch⁩ wowing the audience at #supramol25. Brilliant opening plenary lecture. ⁦@ANUChemistry⁩
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Happy to share that the cover I designed for @DrAnkerLab and colleagues for their @NatureChemistry paper is now online! Stoked! Read about their work here: doi.org/10.1038/s41557-024-0…
Benzene feeling the wrath of four electrons!

ALT Benzene feeling the wrath of four electrons!

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