Nicholas D. Ball

Assistant Professor of Chemistry

nicholas.ball@pomona.edu

Office:

Seaver North

206

(909) 607-0378

Personal Website

With Pomona since:

2015

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Expertise

The Ball Laboratory is interested in turning pollution into products, by using the power of transition-metal catalysis. Our focus is to develop methodologies that convert deleterious air, water, and ground pollutants into useful feedstocks for chemical synthesis. One challenge we aim to address is the conversion of air pollutants or their chemical equivalent (e.g. CO₂, CO, SO₂, NO₂, etc.) into useful feedstocks of carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen for organic synthesis. Our strategy is to achieve this goal by metal-catalyzed direct insertion of small molecules into C–X bonds (X = halogen, OR; R= H, aryl, alkyl) using existing cross-coupling platforms

Our research involves a two-step strategy: 1) development of new catalytic reactions, and 2) mechanistic investigations of these reactions with model organometallic complexes. Experiments and results from each component facilitate the innovation in the other providing an impactful, deeper understanding of the chemistry.

Areas of Expertise

Organometallic Chemistry
Organic Chemistry
Homogeneous Catalysis
Physical Organometallic Chemistry

Work

Racowski, J. M.; Ball, N. D.; Sanford, M. S. Aryl C–H Activation at Pd(IV) Centers. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 18022-18025.

Ball, N. D.; Gary, J. B.; Ye, Y.; Sanford, M. S. Mechanistic and Computational Studies of Oxidatively-Induced Aryl–CF₃ Bond-Formation at Pd: Rational Design of Room Temperature Aryl Trifluoromethylation. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 7577-7584.

Ye, Y.; Ball, N. D.; Kampf, J. W.; Sanford, M. S. Oxidation of Catalytically Relevant Palladium Dimer with “CF₃+: Formation and Reactivity of a Monomeric Palladium(IV) Aquo Complex. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 14682-14687.

Ball, N. D.; Kampf, J. W.; Sanford, M. S. Aryl C–CF₃ Bond Forming Reductive Elimination from a Palladium(IV) Complex. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 2878-2879.

Ball, N. D.; Kampf, J. W.; Sanford, M. S. Synthesis and Reactivity of Palladium(II) Fluoride Complexes Containing Nitrogen-Donor Ligands. Dalton Trans. 2010, 39, 632-640.

Ball, N. D.; Sanford, M. S. Synthesis and Reactivity of a Mono-sigma-Aryl Palladium(IV) Fluoride Complex. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 3796-3797.

Education

B.A., Macalester College

Ph.D., University of Michigan

Post-doc, California Institute of Technology

Awards & Honors

American Chemical Society; Petroleum Research Fund Grant UNI – 2014-2016

National Institutes of Health; Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow – 2011-2013

National Institutes of Health; Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Fellow – 2009-2011