Eric Kofi Kouame, a postgraduate student from Ivory Coast, graduated from INRTU
Eric Kofi Kouame, a research associate at the Laboratory of Photofunctional Materials, completed his Ph.D studies at INRTU in the summer of 2024. He successfully defended his graduation thesis on "2,3-Di(het)arylbutenes: Synthesis and Photochemical Transformations."
The scientific supervisor of the postgraduate student was Doctor of Chemical Sciences Andrey Lvov, who heads the Laboratory of Photofunctional Materials, created jointly by INRTU and Irkutsk Institute of Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Science (part of the Baikal Scientific and Educational Center).
“Our collaboration with Eric began at the end of 2020. Before coming to Irkutsk, Eric had never worked in chemistry (especially organic), so it was very difficult for him. However, he managed and in three and a half years mastered the basic experimental methods of organic synthesis and physico-chemical methods of analysis.
I can confidently say that he acquired good qualifications as an experimenter, as evidenced by his excellent mastery of the McMurry reaction (reductive condensation of ketones in the presence of low-valent titanium).
Eric became a co-author of articles in respected international journals (Organic Letters, European Journal of Organic Chemistry, Chemistry – A European Journal), moreover, in the coming years new articles with his participation will be sent for publication.
Our laboratory team wishes Eric success in his new country and reminds him that we are waiting for his return to Russia to defend his dissertation for the degree of candidate of sciences,” stated Andrey Lvov.
In 2023, Eric Kofi Kouame co-authored a review paper in the authoritative international journal Chemistry – A European Journal, dedicated to a unique chemical reaction - the diatropic photorearrangement of diarylethenes.
The young scientist notes that using light as a source of energy for chemical reactions allows for very unusual processes.
“In diarylethene chemistry, their irreversible photoisomerization into complex polycyclic molecules with a dihydrodithiaacenaphthylene (DDA) skeleton has been known for more than 20 years. This process has always been considered undesirable, as it negatively affects the switching of diarylethenes between two states.
Together with a colleague from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Dr. M. Khusniyarov, we first considered the photorearrangement of diarylethenes into DDAs as a synthetic method and analyzed the current state of research in this area. We have shown that this reaction can be considered a fairly efficient method for the synthesis of dihydrodithiaacenaphthylene derivatives. The combination of DDA properties (photo- and thermal stability, conjugated π-system) makes them interesting for various applications, some of which have already been tested, including molecular electronics and interface materials,” explained Eric Kofi Kouame.
Link to the article: https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/chem.202301480
