Luca Capaldo was born in Milan, Italy. He studied chemistry at the University of Pavia and obtained his  M.Sc. in 2015 (advisor: Prof. M. Fagnoni) with a dissertation on “Chemistry for technologies: LEDs and organic superconductors” after a visiting period as an Erasmus Trainee in the group of Prof. Luisa De Cola (ISIS, Strasbourg).

In the same year, Luca started his Ph.D. in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences (advisor: Prof. M. Fagnoni) at the University of Pavia, during which he spent a visiting period in the group of Prof. Tehshik P. Yoon at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Luca defended his thesis on “Novel Approaches for Ecosustainable Synthesis” (highest honors) in February 2019.

After a postdoc with Prof. Davide Ravelli at the same University, during which he develop electrophotocatalytic methodologies for cross-dehydrogenative couplings, he joined the group of Prof. Timothy Noël as Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow (Individual Felloship). During this time, he worked on the development of novel photocatalytic approaches in batch and flow via Hydrogen-Atom Transfer (HAT) and Halogen-Atom Transfer (XAT). 

In late 2023, he joined the SynCat Lab.

His research involves the development of new photocatalytic manifolds, mechanistic investigation of catalytic reactions and synthesis of industrially relevant compounds.

He is Associate Editor for the Journal of Flow Chemistry.

Selected publications:

• Rapid and scalable photocatalytic C(sp²)–C(sp³) Suzuki−Miyaura cross-coupling of aryl bromides with alkyl boranes, Nat. Commun. 2024, 15, 4028
• Photoinduced Halogen-Atom Transfer by N-Heterocyclic Carbene-Ligated Boryl Radicals for C(sp³)–C(sp³) Bond Formation, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, 991.
• Modular allylation of C(sp³)–H bonds by combining decatungstate photocatalysis and HWE olefination in flow, Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 7325.
• Decatungstate as direct hydrogen atom transfer photocatalyst for SOMOphilic alkynylation, Org. Lett. 2021, 23, 2243.
• Visible light uranyl photocatalysis: direct C–H to C–C bond conversion, ACS Catal. 2019, 9, 3054.

Selected reviews:

• A field guide to flow chemistry for synthetic organic chemists, Chem. Sci. 2023, 14, 4230.
• Direct photocatalyzed hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) for aliphatic C–H bonds elaboration, Chem. Rev. 2022, 122, 1875.
• Synthetic Applications of Photocatalyzed Halogen‐Radical Mediated Hydrogen Atom Transfer for C− H Bond Functionalization, Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2022, e202200417