Metal Catalysed Decarboxylative C-C Bond Formation Reactions

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Organic synthesis has undeniably made tremendous progress over the past two centuries. Nevertheless, our ability to efficiently synthesise molecules is mostly limited to targets of low structural complexity. Preparing more sophisticated compounds is currently possible; however, their syntheses are highly inefficient: they usually involve a high number of reaction and purification steps, with a consequent increase in waste generation, and a dramatic reduction in overall yields. Consequently, these syntheses are generally not applicable to the sustained production of complex molecules of interest. This observation has led to a general consensus in the scientific community as to the urgent need for new chemical processes supporting the development of a "greener" and more sustainable chemical industry.Traditional synthetic strategies require the presence of reactive functional groups that are used as handles for further functionalisation. This requirement is one of the factors dramatically enhancing the difficulty of syntheses. In addition, often these 'handles' are not part of the final molecule and are lost as waste by-product that may be toxic and needs to be separated and dealt with. The last two decades have seen the emergence of a more straightforward alternative: the direct functionalisation of C-H bonds. Through this strategy the typically inert C-H bonds, ubiquitous in organic molecules, can be activated by transition metal catalysts and subsequently functionalised. A second approach involves the use of carboxylic acids that can be activated via decarboxylation to direct very accurately the reactivity in a given molecule. In our research we want to combine both of these new types of reactivity to develop a series of methodologies that can form bonds between carbon atoms of molecules with a very limited amount of waste by-product and in an efficient manner. The development of such new transformations will impact on all applied areas, such as the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and new materials, by providing cheap and easy access to molecules that are very difficult to make to date (and therefore not used commercially).