New Multifunctional Catalysts for Asymmetric Phospho-Transfer

新型催化剂的开发继续受到对更高效、更具成本效益和选择性工艺的需求的推动。我们对一种叫做磷酸转移的特殊过程感兴趣，这是一种非常广泛的转化，可用于制造药物分子、新材料和聚合物；事实上，磷酸转移过程是我们身体运作的基础。这个项目关注的是为磷酸转移的一个强有力的例子，磷酸醛（PA）反应开发更高效和有效的催化剂。这一过程可以说是获得含磷化学物质（如酶抑制剂、抗生素和抗病毒药物）的最通用和最直接的途径。在每种应用中，磷分子的详细形状对于获得所需的特性至关重要。有几个团队正在开发能够控制磷酸-醛反应的催化剂，使产物分子只有一种形状。然而，重要的问题仍然存在，其中最主要的是没有开发出既高效又具有形状选择性，又能在室温下在空气和水的存在下工作的催化剂体系。我们的目标是建立在我们最近发现的在室温下有空气和水存在的新催化剂的基础上。未来开发这些新催化剂的关键是能够更好地控制磷产物的形状，这是我们的目标，通过计算机辅助建模和合成化学的结合来实现。

The development of new catalysts continues to be driven by the need for ever more efficient, cost-effective and selective processes. We are interested in in a particular type of process called phospho-transfer, an extremely broad class of transformation that can be used to make drug molecules, new materials and polymers; indeed, phospho-transfer processes are fundamental to the way our bodies work. This project concerns the development of more efficient and effective catalysts for one powerful example of phospho-transfer, the phospho-aldol (PA) reaction. This process is arguably the most versatile and direct route to phosphorus-containing chemicals such as enzyme inhibitors, antibiotics and antivirals. Within each application, it is the detailed shape of the phosphorus molecule that is crucial in eliciting the required properties.Several teams are developing catalysts which can control the phospho-aldol reaction such that only one shape of product molecule will result. However, significant problems still remain chief amongst which is the fact that no catalyst system been developed which is both highly effective and shape selective but which is capable of working at room temperature in the presence of air and water. Our objectives here build upon our recent discovery of new catalysts which operate at room temperature in the presence of air and water. The key to future exploitation of these new catalysts is to be able to control the shape of the phosphorus products a little better and it is this that we aim to achieve through a combination of computer-aided modelling and synthetic chemistry.