Catalytic Generation of Nucleophiles at Main Group Centres for Stereoselective Transformations

有机合成提供了制备用于医药、材料和农业的精细化学品的手段，从而提高了我们的生活质量。有机化学中的转化往往由于缺乏通用性而变得复杂，或者伴随着不希望的副产物的形成，因此开发用于精细化学转化的新催化剂仍然是一个积极研究的领域。我在达尔豪斯大学的新研究小组正在开发一种方法，利用从地球上丰富的主族元素合成的催化剂，使合成更便宜、更安全，并通过提供从过渡金属中提取的催化剂的互补反应性，使目前未知的转化变得容易实现。

Organic synthesis raises our quality of life by providing means to prepare fine chemicals used in medicine, materials and agriculture. Transformations in organic chemistry are often complicated by a lack of generality, or accompanied by the formation of undesired side products, consequently the development of new catalysts for fine chemical transformations continues to be an area of active investigation. My new research group at Dalhousie University is developing methodology employing catalysts synthesized from earth abundant main group elements to make synthesis cheaper, safer, and to make currently unknown transformations accessible, by providing complementary reactivity to catalysts derived from transition metals.