As of August 2016, Broere will continue his scientific career as postdoc researcher in the highly respected group of professor Patrick Holland at Yale University, where he will investigate iron-chemistry in the context of nitrogen-fixation. It is the next milestone in his chemistry career which started ten years ago with his bachelor study at the HU University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht where he graduated with honours. He continued with his master’s studies at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, during which he also taught high school chemistry at the Herman Wesselink College in Amstelveen.

Broere obtained his master’s degree cum laude in May 2012 and shortly thereafter started his PhD research at the Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences under supervision of Dr Jarl Ivar van der Vlugt at the Homogeneous, Supramolecular and Bioinspired catalysis group of Prof. Joost Reek.

Innovative use of ligands

Broere's PhD thesis revolves around the innovative use of specific classes of ligands that are redox-switchable in the coordination sphere of transition metals. He has successfully combined synthesis, coordination chemistry, spectroscopy, theory, stoichiometric reactivity and catalysis to uncover unprecedented chemistry of noble metals in radical-type reactions. This chemistry is typically the realm of base metals, but using these re(dox)-active ligands has opened up ways to do single-electron transfer with palladium.

He has also designed systems that combine two metals, be it two palladium centers or a combination of two metals (nickel and gold). This has provided possibilities to tune electronic communication and steer reactivity between these metal sites using the delicate redox-properties of the ligand framework.

High impact publications

Broere's research has already been published in high-impact scientific journals: two publications in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, one in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, two in Chemistry - A European Journal and one in Chemical Society Reviews. Two more publications are underway, one submitted and one in preparation. He has also been actively involved in several other projects within the sub-group of Jarl Ivar van der Vlugt, which to date has generated two further publications in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, as well as one in the European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry.