Yun Xu-Li obtained her PhD in organic chemistry in 1989 and her HDR in bioinorganic chemistry in 2009. She is a CNRS research engineer (hors-classe) specializing in organic synthesis and coordination chemistry. She worked for seventeen years at Université Paris-Descartes (now Université Paris Cité) in the bio-organic and bio-inorganic chemistry team (director : D. Mansuy), where she developed the synthesis of Fe/Co complexes with thiolato or poly-imidazole ligands. She also developed poly-sulfur organic radicals, stable at room temperature, as EPR probes.
She joined the Collège de France in 2012, in the " Chemistry of Biological Processes "groupheaded by Prof. Marc Fontecave. She is developing biomimetic Mo/W complexes with dithiolene ligands. These complexes are used as catalysts for the electro- and photo-reduction ofCO2. She is also studying other non-noble, redox-active metals such as Co, Ni and Fe forCO2 reduction.
