Lithium Cuprates to Copper Lithiates: A New Dawn in Metal Catalysed Chemistry

铜金属已经被人类使用了至少10,000年。“自然铜”是最早发现的金属之一，因为它可以以未化合的形式存在，而不是像大多数其他更具反应性的金属那样作为天然矿物。在20世纪，铜成为电线、管道、建筑和工业机械的重要金属，主要是由于其良好的化学和物理性质，包括其延展性、非常高的导电性和导热性、耐久性和耐腐蚀性。铜还具有重要的生物学作用。铜是一种重要的微量元素，对人体器官的正常运作和新陈代谢至关重要。铜通常被认为是一种非常不活泼的金属;然而，当它与有机（含碳）分子化学结合产生有机铜化合物时，情况就截然不同了。合成的第一种有机铜试剂之一甲基铜实际上是高度爆炸性的，并且反应性太强，无法产生安全，可管理和可重复的化学反应。但是当与有机锂化合物结合时，新的混合锂铜试剂显示出更高的稳定性，可以收获以产生令人兴奋的有用化学物质，从而允许开发多种催化化学转化。这使得新的重要分子的简单合成成为可能，在过去的几年里，这改变了制药行业。到目前为止，基础科学已经决定了这些锂铜试剂作为“铜酸锂”存在，这意味着锂中心形式上带正电，而铜中心持有带负电的有机基团，使其形式上带负电。在我们的团队中，我们最近取得了突破性进展，可以制备一种全新的锂铜化合物，其中每种金属所起的正负作用已经逆转，产生了前所未有的锂化铜。在本项目中，将充分探索显示这种新配方和极性反转的化合物的形成和催化反应性的范围。混合锂铜化学中的这一“新方向”的结果无疑将吸引广泛的学术界，包括无机，有机金属和有机化学家，以及由于前所未有的结构和配位化学的超分子化学家。这种新的方法扩展到催化也将是相当大的兴趣，研究人员在化学工业（精细化学品，制药，农药等）。他们致力于以简便的方式生产新的关键分子，造福人类。

Copper metal has been used by humans for at least the past 10,000 years. "Native copper" was one of the first metals discovered as it can exist in an uncombined form, and not as a natural mineral like most other more reactive metals. In the 20th century, copper emerged as an important metal for electrical wiring, pipework, architecture and industrial machinery, mainly due to its favourable chemical and physical properties including its ductility, very high electrical and thermal conductivity, durability and corrosion resistance. Copper also has an important biological role. It is an essential trace element, which is vital for the proper functioning of the body's organs and metabolism.Copper is generally considered as a very unreactive metal; however, when it is chemically-combined with an organic (carbon-containing) molecule to produce an organocopper compound, a vastly different situation arises. One of the first organocopper reagents synthesised, methylcopper, is in fact highly explosive and too reactive to produce a safe, manageable and reproducible chemistry. But when combined with an organolithium compound, the new mixed lithium copper reagent displays a much higher stability which can be harvested to produce an exciting, useful chemistry allowing for a multitude of catalytic chemical transformations to be developed. This has allowed the facile synthesis of new important molecules, which over the past few years have transformed the pharmaceutical industry. Up until now, the fundamental science at play has dictated than these lithium copper reagents exist as "lithium cuprates" meaning that the lithium centre is formally positively charged, whilst the copper centre holds the negatively charged organic groups rendering it formally negatively charged. In our group, we have recently made the breakthrough that it is possible to prepare a brand new type of lithium copper compound, where the positive-negative role that each metal plays has been reversed, producing an unprecedented copper lithiate. In this project, the scope of formation and catalytic reactivity of compounds displaying this new formulation and polarity reversal will be fully explored. Results from this "new direction" within mixed lithium copper chemistry will undoubtedly appeal to a broad spectrum of academics, including inorganic, organometallic and organic chemists, as well as to supramolecular chemists due to the unprecedented structural and coordination chemistry. This new methodology extended to catalysis will also be of considerable interest to researchers in the chemical industry (fine chemicals, pharmaceutical, agrochemical etc.) who strive to produce new key molecules in a facile manner for the benefit of humankind.