SusCHEM: Development of New Reductive Transformations Utilizing First-Row Metal Catalysis

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The Chemical Synthesis Program of the Chemistry Division supports the research by Professor John Montgomery. Professor Montgomery is a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Michigan. The goal of this project is to develop new processes for synthetic organic chemistry that are catalyzed by the earth-abundant metals nickel and copper. The new processes offer improved stability and reactivity, lower cost, and ease of access compared with existing alternatives. The new catalysts are being used to discover new organic transformations of readily available substrates. These efforts create versatile and efficient new catalysts and synthetic procedures that enable the creation of high-value products. The products are prepared from simple and widely available feedstocks in an environmentally sustainable manner. Students engaged in the work are trained in the discovery of new reactions, synthetic methods development, organometallic chemistry, and mechanistic chemistry. A substantial emphasis is placed on the career development of graduate students. Graduate students interested in employment at undergraduate institutions have they opportunity to work in that environment. Through a collaboration with a highly successful laboratory at an undergraduate institution, the graduate student gains experience conducting research and mentoring undergraduates. Other students have the opportunity to conduct collaborative research in international research labs.Professor Montgomery and his research team also are involved in outreach activities that provide engaging exposure to science for young students from the Detroit metropolitan area. These activities impact the academic experiences of many young students including underrepresented minorities while sharing with them the excitement of chemistry fields.Compared with precious metal counterparts, nickel and copper catalysts offer unique reactivity and orthogonal capabilities. A primary focus of the research is to capitalize on the characteristic reactivity of nickel and copper to discover and develop synthetic processes that are unknown with other metals and that provide rapid access to high-value products. In particular, silyloxyarenes, which are an underutilized but widely available and inexpensive class of organic substrates, are employed in a wide array of carbon-hydrogen, carbon-silicon, and carbon-carbon bond-forming processes. In efforts involving copper catalysis, novel cascade processes that derivatize substrates possessing two or more unsaturated structural units are devised through processes that simultaneously incorporate multiple boron and cyano functional groups. The education plans involve innovative practices to provide career development training and international research opportunities to graduate students at the University of Michigan.