Paul Knochel was born in Strasbourg. He studied chemistry at the IUT in Strasbourg, then at the ENSCS. From 1979 to 1982, he completed his thesis entitled "Nitroallyl-halogenide und -ester als effiziente Verknüpfungsreagenzien" at ETH Zurich in Prof. Dieter Seebach's group. He then spent 4 years at the CNRS at the Pierre et Marie Curie University in Paris in the group of Prof. Jean-François Normant. During this period, he studied carbozincation reactions using allylic reagents and prepared bimetallic compounds bearing two different metals on the same carbon atom. He then joined Prof. Martin F. Semmelhack's laboratory for a post-doctoral fellowship during which he worked on the use of indoles-chromium complexes in organic synthesis. In 1987, he accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where he developed the first methods for the preparation of polyfunctional organometallic zinc species. In 1991, he was promoted to Professor at the same University before moving to Marburg in 1992, where he was offered a position as Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the Philips-Universität University. He continued his work on the chemistry of polyfunctional organozinciques and their use in asymmetric synthesis. In 1999, he was offered a position as Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Munich which he still holds in 2019. He has developed new methods for the preparation of polyfunctional organometallic species as well as numerous synthetic methods using organometallic reagents or catalysts.
Scientific work
Paul Knochel has developed a series of new methods for the preparation of polyfunctional organometallic species of zinc and magnesium, but also many other metals such as copper, aluminium, manganese, indium, iron, lanthanum and samarium. In addition, he highlighted the fact that lithium salts catalyse a significant number of organometallic reactions, including the oxidative addition of a metal such as magnesium, zinc 6, indium, manganese or aluminium to an organic halide. It has shown that the use of lithium derivatives catalyses the halogen-metal exchange in the preparation of organomagnesians and organozinciques. In addition, it has synthesized a series of new cluttered metal bases derived from tetramethylpiperidine allowing C-H activations of aromatic and heterocyclic unsaturated systems. He has also conducted research on a series of diastereoselective mixed coupling reactions catalyzed by palladium, iron, cobalt and chromium. He has succeeded in considerably increasing the scope of these organic synthesis reactions through continuous flow chemistry. It has also implemented a synthetic methodology for the preparation of lithians, zinciques and organocuprates with high enantioselectivity and has demonstrated the usefulness of this method for preparing pheromones containing up to five chiral centres. By using additives such as zinc or magnesium pivalate, it has been possible to prepare organozinciques with high stability against air and moisture.
