Paz was born in Madrid (Spain), where she studied Chemistry at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid until June 1999, when she finished her Master in Chemistry (Organic Chemistry). In July 2001 she obtained her Diploma Thesis at the same University under the supervision of Prof. Antonio M. Echavarren (“Desarrollo de Nuevos Métodos de Formación de Enlace C-C Catalizados por Pt, Ru y Pd”. Apto), and then carried out her Ph.D. in Chemistry in the same group (October 2004. “Competing Pathways in the Cyclization of 1,6-Enynes Catalyzed by Transition Metals: Selectivity Studies”). On 22nd October 2004, she passed her viva (Summa Cum Laude) and, one week later undertook her new life as a postdoc in Bristol, in the group of Prof. Lloyd-Jones. During her time in Bristol she held the positions of Research Assistant (November 2004) working on “Synthesis of New 3,3'-Binol Derived Substituted Phosphoramidites” for the Ligand Bank (European Community's Sixth Framework Programme); Post-Doctoral Fellow from the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (August 2005), working in “Mechanistic and Kinetics Aspects of the Palladium-Catalyzed Cyclization of Dienes and Related Reactions”; and finally Research Associate (August 2007), working on “Development of New Protocols for Alkene Difuntionalisation” financed by the (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), UK). In May 2009, Dr. Muñoz returned to Madrid, Spain with a prestigious Ramón y Cajal Award to work at the Insituto de Química Orgánica General (IQOG-CSIC), where she started her research into the discovery of new platinum-catalysed reactions of allenes. She joined the UEA as Lecturer in Chemistry from September 2011 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2017.
Research interests
Dr Muñoz is an organic chemist with particular interest in the discovery and development of new organic and organometallic reactions, the use of physical-organic-inorganic chemistry knowledge to study the mechanisms involved, in particular using isotopic labelling, kinetics, simulations and NMR techniques, and the application of the knowledge acquire to the synthesis of small organic and organometallic molecules with potential biological activity.
Her current research involves the discovery and development of novel transition metal-catalysed reactions of allenes, including:
Selected publications
Allene-derived gold and platinum complexes: synthesis and first application in catalysis
Hanna K. Maliszewska, David L. Hughes and M. Paz Muñoz
Dalton Trans., 2020, 49, 4034-4038.
Unraveling mechanistic insights in the plainum-catalysed dihydroalkoxylation of allenes
M. T. Quirós, E. Gómez-Bengoa, M. P. Muñoz
Pure Appl. Chem. 2020, 92(1), 167-177.
Article for a collection of invited papers based on presentations at the 24th IUPAC International Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry (ICPOC 24) held in Faro, Portugal, 1–6 July 2018.
Platinum and Gold Catalysis: a la Carte Hydroamination of Terminal Activated Allenes with Azoles.
J. M. Alonso, M. P. Muñoz*
Org. Lett. 2019, 21 (18), 7639-7644.
J. M. Alonso, M. P. Muñoz*
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2018, 57, 4742.
L. Cooper, J. M. Alonso, L. Eagling, H. Newson, S. Herath, C. Thomson, A. Lister, C. Howsham, B. Cox,
M. P. Muñoz*
Chem. Eur. J. 2018, 24, 6105.
M. Teresa Quiroś, MaríaPazMuñoz,* Jeppe Christensen and Simon J.Coles
Organometallics, 2017, 36 (2), pp 318–330.
ID: 12388