New Platforms for Catalysis

凭借这一奖项，化学系的化学催化项目资助哥伦比亚大学的Tristan Lambert教授开发新的催化剂，以改善复杂分子的结构，用于药物发现和材料研究等领域。正在研究的催化剂有望提高各种化学反应的效率，并有助于减少重要分子靶标合成过程中的浪费。学生培训的计划方法正在进行中，该方法利用技术和教育研究中的最新发现，使学生能够最大限度地自主掌握合成化学。兰伯特集团内外的研究生，以及本科化学专业的学生，都参加了这个项目，为这些学生提供现代有机合成的实践和智力训练，对工业和学术界的职业生涯有价值。该项目的目的之一是开发一种基于芳香环戊二烯阴离子支架的新型酸性催化剂，因此与现有平台高度正交。对该平台结构-活性关系的深入理解将为其应用于一系列重要问题奠定基础。第二个主要目标是解决有机合成中尚未解决的挑战，即催化羰基-烯烃复分解反应。提出的开发这种催化剂的计划需要两种正交策略，一种涉及金属催化，另一种依赖于简单的有机分子（有机催化）。这两种方法代表了对化学转化的开创性研究，这种化学转化有可能成为从小分子合成到材料等领域的重要支持技术。这是一个高风险、高回报的目标；如上所述，这类反应可能非常强大，但迄今为止还没有进行催化的尝试。

With this award, the Chemical Catalysis program of the Division of Chemistry is funding Professor Tristan Lambert of Columbia University to develop new catalysts that improve the construction of complex molecules for areas such as drug discovery and materials research. The catalysts being investigated are expected to increase the efficiency of a variety chemical reactions and also help reduce waste during the synthesis of important molecular targets. A planned approach to student training is in process which makes use of technology and recent findings in educational research to enable students to maximize their self-directed journey to master synthetic chemistry. Graduate students, both within and outside the Lambert group, as well as undergraduate chemistry students, participate in this program, providing these students with both practical and intellectual training in modern organic synthesis, of value for the careers in industry and academe.One aim of this project is the development of a new acid catalyst based on an aromatic cyclopentadienyl anion scaffold, which is thus highly orthogonal to established platforms. The development of a deep understanding of the structure-activity relationship of this platform will set the stage for its application to a range of important problems. The second major aim addresses an unmet challenge in organic synthesis, namely catalysis of carbonyl-olefin metathesis reactions. The proposed plan to develop such catalysts entails two orthogonal strategies, one involving metal catalysis and the other relying on simple organic molecules (organocatalysis). These two approaches represent pioneering investigations into a chemical transformation that has the potential to become a significant enabling technology in fields ranging from small molecule synthesis to materials and beyond. This is a high risk, high payoff aim; this class of reactions is potentially very powerful, as noted, but has resisted attempts at catalysis heretofore.