Poranne Research Group

About

The Poranne Group is a research group working in the field of computational physical organic chemistry. Since October 2021, our group is part of the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry at the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology. We first started working in July 2017 as a sub-group within the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Peter Chen at the Laboratorium für Organische Chemie at the ETH Zürich.

Our work focuses on the investigation of polycyclic aromatic systems and includes characterization of molecular properties, elucidation of structure-property relationships, and illumination of the connection between aromaticity and reactivity in organometallic catalysts. We uncover useful and intuitive connections between structural features and molecular properties, and develop user-friendly pipelines and methods that help connect these abstract properties to real-world synthetic strategies. The chemical insights that we uncover are leveraged to implement machine-learning and deep-learning models for data-driven molecular design and discovery. In addition, we work closely with collaborators around the world to better understand the reactivity and behavior of polycyclic aromatic systems, and to harness their unique properties for various applications.

The group believes in an inclusive and collaborative culture, where team-work and mutual respect are top priorities. We are always open to receiving new members who are excited about learning and who are motivated to work towards advancing our understanding of chemistry and molecular design.

Recent Publications

These are the most recent publications. Clickable titles lead to the version of record. Feel free to email us to request an author's version if you cannot access the publications. Links to preprints are provided, when available. For all publications, please click here.

N2 Dissociation vs Reversible 1,2-Methyl Migration in PCNHCP Cobalt(I) Complexes in the Stereoselective Isomerization (E/Z) of Allyl Ethers

Sakthi Raje, Subhash Garhwal, Katarzyna Młodzikowska-Pieńko, Tofayel Sheikh Mohammad, Ron Raphaeli, Natalia Fridman, Linda J. W. Shimon, Renana Gershoni-Poranne,* and Graham de Ruiter*
JACS Au, September 2024

What a Difference an Electron Makes: Structural Response of Saddle-Shaped Tetraphenylene to One and Two Electron Uptake

Yikun Zhu, Zheng Zhou, Zheng Wei, Alexandra Tsybizova, Renana Gershoni-Poranne,* and Marina A. Petrukhina*
ChemistryEurope, September 2024

Hetero-Polycyclic Aromatic Systems: A Data-Driven Investigation of Structure–Property Relationships

Preprint
Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Eduardo Mayo Yanes, and Renana Gershoni-Poranne*
Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry, July 2024

COMPAS-3: a Dataset of peri-Condensed Polybenzenoid Hydrocarbons

Preprint
Alexandra Wahab and Renana Gershoni-Poranne*
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, May 2024

Modulating Paratropicity in Heteroarene-Fused Expanded Pentalenes

Said Jalife, Alexandra Tsybizova, Renana Gershoni-Poranne,* and Judy I. Wu*
Organic Letters, January 2024

A Crowning Achievement: The First Solution-Phase Synthesis of Circumcoronenes

Renana Gershoni-Poranne* and Alexandra Tsybizova
Angewandte Chemie, May 2023