Our Lab is growing even more!! We also welcome Tommaso, who has joined #TeamXenon in the last weeks to start his PhD journey. We wish you a lot of success and a great time at @humboldtuni.bsky.social!

We welcome Eddy to #TeamXenon for his master’s research internship. Good luck playing around with arylxenonium salts during these months!

Last Friday Moritz defended his Master’s Thesis outstandingly!! Congratulations and good luck in your next steps, Moritz! #TeamXenon

This month we welcome Vera to #TeamXenon! She will join our group for her PhD and will be working on the reactivity of organoxenonium salts. We wish you all the best for the next years at @humboldtuni.bsky.social!

Some days ago we celebrated another successful year for #TeamXenon. Looking forward to a new year full of changes, challenges, and a lot of organometallic, xenon and fluorine chemistry.
Our best wishes for the Christmas season and for 2026!!

Yesterday Michael became the first student in our lab defending his Master’s Thesis! Congratulations Michael for the outstanding defense and all the best for your future!!! #TeamXenon

Gusteau said “Anyone can cook!” — we say “Anyone can do arylxenonium!” 👨‍🍳🧪
Our general approach for the synthesis of arylxenonium(II) salts hits the front cover of Inorganic Chemistry!
Cover cooked to perfection by Miriam. #Ratatouille #MyACSCover @pubs.acs.org

Paper: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

A General Approach for the Synthesis of Arylxenonium(II) Tetrafluoroborates Arylxenonium(II) salts are the most numerous group of organoxenon compounds, i.e., those containing Xe–C bonds, and must be prepared by different routes that lack universality. Here, we present a general synthetic approach to arylxenonium(II) tetrafluoroborates [RXe][BF4] containing different degrees of fluorination at the aryl group R via processes that do not require the use of reactive gases or special equipment. The new synthetic access relies on the generation of aryldifluoroboranes RBF2 in dichloromethane solution by means of the reaction of K[RBF3] and BF3·OEt2, which are then transformed in a subsequent step to [RXe][BF4] salts. This route is not only more accessible than previously existing methods but also yields arylxenonium(II) tetrafluoroborates in higher yield and purity. Nevertheless, for highly acidic aryldifluoroborane species, namely those with R = C6F5, C6HF4, coordination of diethyl ether to the boron center prevents the transfer of the R group to the xenon atom. In these cases, a one-pot procedure starting from BR3, XeF2 and BF3·OEt2 enables their easy synthesis, including that of the novel compound [(2,3,5,6-C6HF4)Xe][BF4]. By means of the analysis of 11B NMR spectra of the aryldifluoroborane mixtures and theoretical calculations, the design of new organoxenonium(II) tetrafluoroborates through one route or the other can be tackled.

Celebration day for #TeamXenon!!
Our first paper is out in Inorganic Chemistry! Check our general and accesible approach for the synthesis of arylxenonium(II) salts. Congratulations to Pablo and all the team for the amazing work! @pubs.acs.org @humboldtuni.bsky.social

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

We are so happy to welcome Jasmin to #TeamXenon for the next weeks!! We wish you a lot of fun with us and hopefully a succesful collaboration with @joshabbenseth.bsky.social.

Brownies summer trip 2025 ☀️ - we had an amazing day visiting the Stasi museum followed by a lake hike. Our trip ended in a beer garden 🍺 Kudos to Marvin for organising the trip! 🥾 @albertpebi.bsky.social

The US trip comes to an end. Amazing experience attending my first ever ACS Meeting #ACSFall2025 and very enjoyable visit to @okstate.edu to talk about fluorinated compounds. Thanks Mira for the invitation and all the faculty members for the interesting discussions and a great day!

Last days to apply!! If you have experience in synthetic inorganic chemistry and want to pursue doctoral studies, this might be for you!

Last week #TeamXenon was at the 21st European Symposium on Fluorine Chemistry in Lisbon: great time, inspiring talks and delicious food! And again, Pablo wowing the crowd with his research on organoxenonium(II) salts. Thanks to the organizers of #ESFC2025 for the great event!

Modell eines Catenan (von lateinisch „catena“ = Kette), eine chemische Struktur, bei der zwei ringförmige Moleküle wie Glieder einer Kette ineinander verschlungen sind – ohne über eine chemische Bindung miteinander verbunden zu sein. Bild: Tommy Wachsmuth, Kathan-Lab/HU

🧪 Forschende der #HumboldtUni entwickeln einen lichtbetriebenen Nano-Motor, der Moleküle gezielt ineinander verschlingen kann. Das eröffnet neue Wege für die Synthese flexibler, robuster Materialien. Mehr dazu 👉 lnkd.in/eu37s9Xu

This week we had a different kind of day with #TeamXenon! We enjoyed some traditional German cuisine and then went all in at an arcade: air hockey smackdowns, an epic basketball showdown, and high-speed driving (on simulators, thankfully). #ResearchModeOff #ScienceAndTeamwork

PhD POSITION OPEN! We are looking for someone enthusiastic to join our team at @humboldtuni.bsky.social! If you want to work in the frontier between noble gas chemistry and organometallic fluorine chemistry, this is for you! #TeamXenon
Info here: haushalt-und-personal.hu-berlin.de/de/personal/...

Great success of #TeamXenon at the XL Biennial Meeting of the RSEQ! Grande Pablo presenting his poster about organoxenonium(II) salts and convincing everyone about our exotic chemistry #ProudPI

TOC

Again excellent news!!! Our paper about the synthesis of new halonium ions is out in @chemicalscience.rsc.org. We also prepared a very reactive species which is able to activate isobutane. Excellent work of Lukas and team😉pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelandin...

An Aluminum-Based Lewis Superacid and Its Weakly Coordinating Anions Derived from an Organotellurium Ligand Lewis acids and their related weakly coordinating anions (WCAs) are central species in chemistry, and tuning their properties toward different purposes is still a challenging field of research. In thi...

Just out in JACS Au. Our new Aluminum-Based Lewis Superacid using a more bulky ligand -OTeF3PhF2. The corresponding WCA also exist, but with one OTeF5 group which leads to an asymmetric WCA. Great work of Daniel and team 😉 Have a look: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Moritz is joining #TeamXenon, again! After a successful research internship, he decided to continue with his Master’s Thesis with us. New lab, new topic, we wish you all the best!

Thanks a lot @humboldtuni.bsky.social for highlighting the beginning of “OrgXeMet”!! Great xenon chemistry to be uncovered in the next years through the efforts of #TeamXenon thanks to the Emmy Noether funding of the @dfg.de.

www.hu-berlin.de/en/press-por...

Photo from the Research Group OrgXeMet

Herzlichen Glückwunsch! 🎉 Der HU-Nachwuchswissenschaftler Alberto Pérez-Bitrián erhält die Emmy Noether-Förderung der @dfg.de. Die Forschungsgruppe @perezbitrianlab.bsky.social untersucht Eigenschaften und Reaktionsfreudigkeit von Xenonverbindungen. Mehr Infos: 👉 www.hu-berlin.de/de/pr/nachri...

Michael is back in #TeamXenon ready to become the first student doing his Master’s Thesis in our lab. Good luck with your challenging project!!

This month we welcome Irene Melendo, who will join us during three months as a visiting @euerasmusplus.bsky.social PhD student. We wish her a successful stay and a lot of fun in #TeamXenon! @saricafl.bsky.social @platinerosuz.bsky.social

Great to be finally in #Bluesky!
This profile will remain as my personal one, since now we have also a group account for the Pérez-Bitrián Lab:

bsky.app/profile/pere...

Follow us there to get the most recent news of #TeamXenon