CAS: Sustainable Technologies for Building Molecules: Cobalt, Nickel, and Copper Catalysis

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With this award, the Chemical Catalysis Program of the NSF Division of Chemistry is supporting the research of Professor Vy M. Dong of the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. The pursuit of new ways to construct organic molecules is an essential field of research that impacts many other scientific disciplines such as the development discovery of important therapeutic agents, the invention of novel materials, and the search for alternative energies. Professor Dong’s research team is committed to inventing better catalytic tools for building organic molecules using earth-abundant metal catalysts. Students pursuing these aims are training to be molecular architects with a deep understanding of how to connect molecular fragments using new transition metal-catalyzed processes. They will enter the work force with the ability to design new sustainable transformations and to prepare molecules with valuable characteristics. In addition, Professor Dong and her students are broadening the participation of underrepresented minorities and women through outreach efforts to engage Hispanic students in Santa Ana, a symposium for local women in chemistry, and social media-based activities to showcase scientists from diverse backgrounds.Professor Dong’s laboratory is motivated by (1) a fundamental interest in new reactivity and (2) a practical need for more efficient and environmentally-friendly technologies. At the heart of this program, her team is pursuing the discovery of catalysts that are derived from sustainable and earth-abundant elements. Professor Dong and her students are addressing three modern challenges in organic synthesis through catalysis. First, they are inventing a method for cross-coupling Michael acceptors using catalysts derived from copper or nickel. This cascade approach provides access to quaternary carbon centers with high stereocontrol, offers a novel way to construct amide linkages, and widens the scope of hydroarylation. Second, they are investigating a dehydroamino acid/catalytic reduction approach to making cyclic peptides. Two natural products (mahafacylcine -and beauvericin) are being used to test these strategies to access these important targets. Finally, a cobalt-catalyzed transfer hydroformylation is being developed to provide a broadly applicable strategy for transforming aldehydes (or alcohols) to olefins via a one-carbon dehomologation. These activities focused on designing new catalytic tools for organic synthesis are advancing the many fields of science that require the design and construction of functional molecules, from medicinal chemistry to polymer science. The pursuit of these aims is facilitating access to practical tools, while advancing our fundamental knowledge on chemical reactivity and selectivity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.