Current Position

Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Education

Ph.D., Chemistry, University of Texas at Austin
B.S., Chemistry, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Research Interests

Controlling CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel combustion is widely considered a grand challenge of the 21st century. The success of worldwide efforts to reduce atmospheric CO₂ emissions is ultimately tied to the effective implementation of carbon separation (CS) technologies. It is in this area where the cost of implementation and maintenance expose the inadequacies of current separation technologies. The Ashfeld group seeks to address this challenge through a covalent bonding strategy in material design to control anthropogenic CO₂ concentrations in an energy efficient fashion. The ultimate goal is the development of a revolutionary, regenerative material where CO₂ absorption/desorption is controlled through a non-thermal trigger to reduce the parasitic energy requirement of carbon capture.

Key Words

Carbon Capture and Conversion, Catalysis, CO₂ Reduction, Ionic Liquids, Organic Synthesis, Reaction Development, Target Directed Synthesis, Phosphorus, Chemoselectivity, Heterocycle Synthesis

Relevant Energy Publications

1. Tucker, Zachary D., Harrison M. Hill, Andrew L. Smith, and Brandon L. Ashfeld. "Diverting β-Hydride Elimination of a π-Allyl PdII Carbene Complex for the Assembly of Disubstituted Indolines via a Highly Diastereoselective (4+ 1)-Cycloaddition." Organic Letters 22, no. 16 (2020): 6605-6609.
2. Rodriguez, Kevin X., Tara C. Pilato, and Brandon L. Ashfeld. "An unusual stereoretentive 1, 3-quaternary carbon shift resulting in an enantioselective Rh II-catalyzed formal [4+ 1]-cycloaddition between diazo compounds and vinyl ketenes." Chemical Science 9, no. 12 (2018): 3221-3226.
3. Eckert, Kaitlyn E., and Brandon L. Ashfeld. "Aroyl Isocyanates as 1, 4-Dipoles in a Formal [4+ 1]-Cycloaddition Approach toward Oxazolone Construction." Organic Letters 20, no. 8 (2018): 2315-2319.
4. Rodriguez, Kevin X., Justin D. Vail, and Brandon L. Ashfeld. "Phosphorus (III)-mediated stereoconvergent formal [4+ 1]-cycloannulation of 1, 2-dicarbonyls and o-quinone methides: A multicomponent assembly of 2, 3-dihydrobenzofurans." Organic Letters 18, no. 18 (2016): 4514-4517.
5. Haugen, Kasey C., Kevin X. Rodriguez, Aditi P. Chavannavar, Allen G. Oliver, and Brandon L. Ashfeld. "Phosphine-mediated addition of 1, 2-dicarbonyls to diazenes: an umpolung approach toward N-acyl hydrazone synthesis." Tetrahedron Letters 56, no. 23 (2015): 3527-3530.

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