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

凭借该奖项，美国国家科学基金会化学部的化学催化项目正在支持加州大学欧文分校化学系 Vy M. Dong 教授的研究。追求构建有机分子的新方法是一个重要的研究领域，它影响着许多其他科学学科，例如重要治疗剂的开发发现、新型材料的发明以及替代能源的寻找。董教授的研究团队致力于发明更好的催化工具，利用地球上丰富的金属催化剂构建有机分子。追求这些目标的学生正在接受培训，成为分子建筑师，深入了解如何使用新的过渡金属催化过程连接分子片段。他们将在进入劳动力市场时具备设计新的可持续转化和制备具有有价值特性的分子的能力。此外，董教授和她的学生们还通过外展活动吸引圣安娜的西班牙裔学生、当地化学领域女性研讨会以及基于社交媒体的活动来展示来自不同背景的科学家，从而扩大代表性不足的少数族裔和女性的参与。董教授实验室的动机是（1）对新反应性的根本兴趣，以及（2）对更高效、更环保的技术的实际需要。该项目的核心是，她的团队致力于发现源自可持续和地球丰富元素的催化剂。董教授和她的学生正在通过催化解决有机合成的三个现代挑战。首先，他们发明了一种使用铜或镍衍生的催化剂交叉偶联迈克尔受体的方法。这种级联方法提供了对季碳中心的高度立体控制，提供了一种构建酰胺键的新方法，并拓宽了氢芳基化的范围。其次，他们正在研究一种脱氢氨基酸/催化还原方法来制造环肽。两种天然产物（mahafacylcine 和 Beauvericin）正被用来测试这些策略以获取这些重要的靶点。最后，正在开发一种钴催化的转移加氢甲酰化，以提供一种广泛适用的策略，通过单碳脱同系作用将醛（或醇）转化为烯烃。这些专注于设计新的有机合成催化工具的活动正在推动从药物化学到高分子科学等需要设计和构建功能分子的许多科学领域的发展。追求这些目标是促进获得实用工具，同时提高我们在化学反应性和选择性方面的基础知识。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.