Designer Silver Catalysts for Selective Bond Amidations

有了这个奖项，NSF化学部的化学催化计划正在支持威斯康星州麦迪逊大学化学系的Jennifer Schomaker教授的研究，以设计新的催化剂，将原料化学品转化为合成药物和农用化学品的有用的构建单元。正在开发的银催化剂将有机分子的共同部分（称为烯烃和烷烃）转化为含氮基团（称为胺）。重要的是，这些催化剂也被调整以选择特定类型的烯烃或烷烃在含有烷烃和/或烯烃键的多个实例的分子内经历胺化过程。 Schomaker教授和她的研究生和本科生研究人员组成的多元化团队正在研究有关这些催化剂如何工作的问题，以了解如何提高它们在化学品和材料先进制造中的性能。本研究的部分内容也适用于本科教学实验室实验，以使学生在研究经验的早期阶段参与其中。 该项目的绿色方面正在追求教学实验室课程活动，为本科生提供指导探究的机会。开发低成本，模块化催化剂的C-H键到C-N键的可调转换是一个长期的挑战，这是至关重要的实现精简合成的重要分子片段在药物和材料应用。为了解决这个问题，Schomaker教授和她的研究小组正在设计银催化剂，可以通过金属催化的氮烯转移过程控制C-H键向C-N键的选择性转化。这些研究结合了联合收割机机理、光谱和计算研究，以了解银催化剂的不同结构元素如何影响与底物的相互作用，并促进与特定C-H键的选择性反应。案例研究也正在探索，以说明这些新的合成工具的对映体富集胺的制备，制药合成积木的建设，和新的氨基糖的设计的影响。最终，这项工作是建立新的银催化剂的一般设计原则，可以超越固有的反应性偏好，并不需要一个指导组C-H酰胺化。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

With this award, the Chemical Catalysis Program of the NSF Division of Chemistry is supporting the research of Professor Jennifer Schomaker of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin Madison to design new catalysts that convert feedstock chemicals into useful building blocks for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. The silver catalysts that are being developed change common parts of organic molecules called alkenes and alkanes into nitrogen-containing groups called amines. Importantly, these catalysts are also being tuned to select a specific type of alkene or alkane to undergo the amination process within a molecule containing multiple examples of alkane and/or alkene bonds. Professor Schomaker and her diverse team of graduate and undergraduate researchers are examining questions about how these catalysts work in order to learn how to improve their performance for the advanced manufacturing of chemicals and materials. Portions of this study are also being adapted for undergraduate teaching laboratory experiments to engage students at an early stage in research experiences. Green aspects of this project are being pursued in teaching laboratory course activities that provide guided inquiry opportunities for undergraduates.The development of low-cost, modular catalysts for the tunable conversion of C-H bonds to C-N bonds is a long-standing challenge that is crucial for achieving streamlined syntheses of important molecular fragments in pharmaceutical and material applications. To address this issue, Professor Schomaker and her research group are designing silver catalysts that can control the selective transformation of C-H bonds to C-N bonds through metal-catalyzed nitrene transfer processes. These investigations combine mechanistic, spectroscopic, and computational studies to understand how the different structural elements of the silver catalysts influence interactions with substrates and promote selective reactivity with specific C-H bonds. Case studies are also being explored to illustrate the impact of these new synthetic tools for the preparation of enantioenriched amines, the construction of synthetic building blocks for pharmaceuticals, and the design of novel amino sugars. Ultimately, this work is establishing general design principles for new silver catalysts that can override innate reactivity preferences and do not require a directing group for C-H amidation.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.