CAREER: New Catalytic Methodology Enabled by Superbase Chemistry

美国国家科学基金会化学部的化学合成项目用这个奖项来支持科罗拉多州立大学班达尔教授的研究。班达尔教授和他的学生们正在开发新的化学反应和试剂，为科学家们提供更有效和可持续的途径，以获得制药和农用化工行业不可或缺的化合物。为了实现这些目标，研究小组正在使用具有强碱性的中性有机化合物，称为超碱，以解决合成化学中长期存在的挑战。在一个应用中，班达尔实验室正在使用超碱作为催化剂，直接将商品化学品（如醇、胺和烯烃）转化为高价值的产品类别。在另一个应用中，班达尔实验室正在通过开发空气稳定的起始材料来解决使用高活性碱的实际挑战，这些材料为化学家提供了按需获取超级碱的途径。这些试剂有可能提高化学工业中许多最常用反应的实用性和可持续性。作为这个项目的教育组成部分，班达尔实验室正在制作关于强碱的性质及其与不同类别化学物质的相容性的信息材料。这些材料将为化学家提供碱促进化学的有用指南，并帮助本科生从现实世界的角度学习酸碱概念。班达尔教授还在准备和分发媒体，重点介绍科罗拉多州的化学职业，以增加当地学生攻读高等STEM学位的人数。班达尔实验室正在开发各种新的合成能力，这些能力是由有机超级碱的独特性质所实现的。在一个应用中，班达尔实验室正在开发碱基催化的杂原子亲核试剂添加到苯乙烯衍生物中，作为含芳基醚、醇和胺的直接途径。虽然在现代合成中，超级碱是一种极具吸引力且通常是唯一有效的碱类，但它们的成本和对空气的敏感性阻碍了它们的广泛应用。为了应对这一挑战，班达尔实验室正在创造空气稳定试剂，当需要时释放超碱，用于去质子化反应。在另一个目标中，该实验室正在优化超碱促进的烷基化和取代反应的催化作用，从而消除了对超碱化学计量量的需求。这些有针对性的发展可以极大地提高有机超碱化学的实用性和应用，从而改善有价值的有机化合物的获取。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With this Award, the Chemical Synthesis Program of the NSF Division of Chemistry is supporting the research of Professor Bandar at Colorado State University. Professor Bandar and his students are developing new chemical reactions and reagents that provide scientists with more efficient and sustainable access to compounds integral to the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries. To accomplish these objectives, the research group is using neutral organic compounds that possess strong basicity, termed superbases, to address longstanding challenges in synthetic chemistry. In one application, the Bandar lab is employing superbases as catalysts for reactions that directly transform commodity chemicals, such as alcohols, amines and olefins, into highly valued product classes. In another application, the Bandar lab is addressing the practical challenge of using highly reactive bases by developing air-stable starting materials that provide chemists on-demand access to superbases. These reagents have the potential to improve the practicality and sustainability of many of the most-used reactions in the chemical industry. As the educational component of this project, the Bandar lab is creating informational materials on the properties of strong bases and their compatibilities with different classes of chemicals. These materials will provide chemists with useful guides for base-promoted chemistry and help undergraduate students learn acid-base concepts from a real-world perspective. Professor Bandar is also preparing and distributing media that highlights Colorado-based chemistry careers in an effort to increase the number of local students pursuing postsecondary STEM degrees. The Bandar lab is developing a variety of new synthetic capabilities that are enabled by the unique properties of organic superbases. In one application, the Bandar lab is developing base-catalyzed additions of heteroatom nucleophiles to styrene derivatives as a direct route to aryl-containing ethers, alcohols and amines. Although superbases are emerging as an attractive and often uniquely effective class of base in modern synthesis, their cost and air sensitivity prevents their widespread use. To address this challenge, the Bandar lab is creating air-stable reagents that release superbases when desired for general use in deprotonation reactions. In another goal, the lab is optimizing catalysis of superbase-promoted alkylation and substitution reactions, thus eliminating the need for stoichiometric quantities of superbases. These targeted developments could greatly improve the practicality and applications of organic superbase chemistry, thus improving access to valuable organic compounds.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.