C-H Fun - Catalytic Functionalisation of Carbon-Hydrogen Bonds using Earth Abundant Main Group Elements

重要分子的可持续合成，如对健康、食品生产和材料至关重要的分子，是现代社会的挑战之一。一种有效的合成策略涉及碳-氢键的直接官能化，其中仅以氢原子为代价形成新键。该博士项目将开发碳-氢键功能化的新方法，并通过避免使用浪费的定向基团，化学计量试剂来解决当前策略的缺点，重要的是，用更可持续，更便宜的主族元素取代贵金属的使用。这些元素，如硼，比碳氢官能化反应中常用的贵金属丰富100，000倍。这种方法的发展将在学术和工业环境中产生影响。例如，它将允许寻求发现新药的药物化学家有效地获得新分子来研究和治疗疾病。

The sustainable synthesis of important molecules, such as those essential to health, food production and materials, is one of modern societies challenges. One efficient strategy for synthesis involves the direct functionalisation of carbon-hydrogen bonds, where new bonds are formed at the expense of only a hydrogen atom. This PhD project will develop new methods for carbon-hydrogen bond functionalisation and address drawbacks with current strategies by avoiding the use of wasteful directing groups, stoichiometric reagents, and, importantly, replacing the use of precious metals with more sustainable, inexpensive main-group elements. These elements, such as boron, are 100,000's times more abundant than precious metals often used in carbon-hydrogen functionalisation reactions. The development of such methodology will have impact in academic and industrial settings. For example, it will allow medicinal chemists, who quest to discover new medicines, to efficiently access new molecules to investigate and treat disease.