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

有了这个奖项，美国国家科学基金会化学部的化学催化计划正在支持Vy M.他是加州大学欧文分校化学系的Dong博士。寻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，如重要治疗药物的开发发现，新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培养成为分子建筑师，深刻理解如何使用新的过渡金属催化过程连接分子片段。他们将进入劳动力市场，能够设计新的可持续转型，并制备具有宝贵特征的分子。此外，董教授和她的学生正在扩大代表性不足的少数民族和妇女的参与，通过外展工作，让西班牙裔学生参加圣安娜，一个研讨会，为当地妇女在化学，和社交媒体为基础的活动，以展示来自不同背景的科学家。董教授的实验室的动机是（1）对新反应的根本兴趣，（2）对更有效和环保技术的实际需求。在这个项目的核心，她的团队正在寻求从可持续和地球丰富的元素中发现催化剂。董教授和她的学生正在解决三个现代挑战有机合成通过催化。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获得具有高度立体控制的季碳中心的途径，提供了一种构建酰胺键的新方法，并拓宽了氢化芳基化的范围。其次，他们正在研究脱氢氨基酸/催化还原方法来制备环肽。两种天然产品（mahafacylcine和白僵菌素）正在被用来测试这些策略，以获得这些重要的目标。最后，钴催化的转移加氢反应正在开发中，以提供一个广泛适用的策略，通过一个碳去同系化醛（或醇）转化为烯烃。这些活动侧重于设计用于有机合成的新催化工具，正在推进许多需要设计和构建功能分子的科学领域，从药物化学到聚合物科学。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识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.