Chan again (and discovered the indium-mediated allylation reaction in water) along with Prof. David Harpp (working on organosulfur/selenium/tellurium chemistry), and went on a NSERC-funded postdoc with Prof. Barry Trost at Stanford University in the United States (1992–1994) (and discovered the so-called phosphine-catalyzed γ-Addition Reaction).
He then moved in 2003 to McGill University, where he obtained a Canada Research Chair (Tier I) in Green Chemistry.
His work on GaN nanowires and nanoparticals as photocatalysts for the conversion of methane into benzene was covered by Phys.org in 2015, leaving prospects for hydrogen storage.
[7] Subsequently, his team showed that they were also able to convert methanol into ethanol,[8] ethylene and cyclohexane.
He also made breakthroughs in using hydrazones as organometallic surrogates in nucleophilic addition and cross-coupling,[9] the direct amination of phenol derivatives.