Theoretical and Experimental Studies of Metal Catalysed Reactions and Boron-Containing Optical Materials

有机反应的催化，特别是涉及碳-碳键形成的那些，是化学的重要领域，因为这些反应用于几乎所有的有机合成，包括药物和农用化学品、液晶和用于平板显示器的共轭材料的制造。除了开发用于上述反应的新催化剂系统之外，我们还开发了有机硼酸酯的新催化路线，有机硼酸酯是许多这些反应中的关键合成中间体，包括形成碳-碳和碳-杂原子键的均偶联和交叉偶联反应。除了大规模生产外，这些反应还可用于工业上广泛使用的有机化合物的快速合成，例如用于药物和农用化学品的发现。我们采用一种结合的方法来开发催化剂和催化过程，其中包括实验研究和理论研究，后者提供了对反应如何工作的更好理解，这些反应反馈到我们的实验方案中，从而有助于通过设计开发催化剂。与理论家Z.林先生（香港科技大学）在这方面的宝贵经验，申请人希望提高自己的能力，进行这种理论研究。正在与教授们进行催化剂开发的实验研究。Z. Yang（Peking University）和A.化学领域的另一个非常活跃的领域是开发具有有用光学性质的新分子。这样的化合物吸收和发射光或响应于电的施加而发射光，并且可以用于包括高分辨率成像的许多应用中（三维）生物系统（例如，双光子吸收化合物允许在深度维度上的高度空间分辨率），以及在有机发光二极管（OLED）中，后者对于下一代平板显示器是重要的。我们正在与教授们一起工作。W.- Y.王在香港浸会大学，Z。北京大学的Xi和Z.最后，我们正在开发对环境条件稳定的小有机分子（例如，空气和光），并可用作天然存在的全反式维甲酸（ATRA，维生素A的代谢物）的替代品，以触发干细胞的分化。ATRA对空气尤其是光不稳定，这在细胞培养的实际应用中引起问题，因为在暴露于正常实验室光时形成的异构体表现出不同的生物活性。我们正在开发的新分子是稳定的，例如，干细胞的分化只产生神经元（神经细胞），而不是细胞类型的混合物。这项工作涉及与达勒姆的有机化学家和生物学家以及专门从事干细胞技术的中小企业（Reinnervate Ltd.）和用于药物中间体的合成（High force Research Ltd.）。我们计划将这种合作扩大到包括Z教授。杨（北京大学深圳研究生院化学基因组学实验室，长江教授，化学生物学与生物技术学院院长）由于他在北京和深圳的研究小组在合成相关生物活性化合物方面具有专业知识，我们希望在我们的工艺中研究这些化合物，还可以进入一个特殊的实验室，里面有1000多条转基因斑马鱼，可以用来快速研究我们正在合成的类维生素A对发育的影响。

Catalysis of organic reactions, especially those involving carbon-carbon bond formation, is an important area of chemistry as such reactions are used in almost all organic syntheses including the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, liquid crystals, and conjugated materials for applications in flat-screen displays. In addition to developing new catalyst systems for the above reactions, we are also developing new catalytic routes to organoboronate esters which are key synthetic intermediates in many of these reactions including homocoupling and cross-coupling reactions to form carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds. These reactions also have applications in the rapid synthesis of organic compounds widely used in industry, for example, for drug and agrochemical discovery, in addition to large-scale manufacturing. We employ a combined approach to developing catalysts and catalytic process which incorporates experimental studies as well as theoretical studies, the latter providing an improved understanding of how the reactions work, which feeds back into our experimental programmes thus assisting in the development of catalysts by design. The ongoing, highly productive collaboration with theoretician Prof. Z. Lin (HKUST) has proven invaluable in this regard, and the applicant wishes to improve his own ability to carry out such theoretical studies. Experimental studies on catalyst development are ongoing with Profs. Z. Yang (Peking University) and A. Lei (Wuhan University) which have already led to new catalysts for several important carbon-carbon bond forming reactions.Another area of chemistry which is very active is the development of new molecules with useful optical properties. Such compounds absorb and emit light or emit light in response to the application of electricity, and can be used in many applications including high resolution imaging (in 3 dimensions) in biological systems (for example, two-photon absorbing compounds allow for a high degree of spatial resolution in the depth dimension), as well as in Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs), the latter being important for the next generation of flat-screen displays. We are working (together with Profs. W.-Y. Wong at Hong Kong Baptist University, Z. Xi at Peking University, and Z. Liu at Shandong University) on the development of new organic and organometallic compounds containing boron which exhibit enhanced optical properties for the above applications.Finally, we are developing small organic molecules which are stable to ambient conditions (e.g., air and light) and can be used as alternatives to the naturally occurring All-Trans Retinoic Acid (ATRA, a metabolite of Vitamin A) to trigger the differentiation of stem cells. ATRA suffers from its instability to air and especially light, causing problems in practical applications in cell culture, as the isomers formed upon exposure to normal laboratory light exhibit different biological activity. The new molecules we are developing are stable, allowing, e.g., the differentiation of stem cells to give rise to neurons (nerve cells) only, as opposed to mixtures of cell types. This work involves collaboration with organic chemists and biologists in Durham, as well as SMEs specializing in enabling stem cell technologies (Reinnervate Ltd.) and in synthesis of pharmaceutical intermediates (High force Research Ltd.). We plan to expand this collaboration to include Prof. Z. Yang (Laboratory for Chemical Genomics at the Shenzhen Graduate School of Peking University, where he is Changjiang Professor and Dean of the College of Chemical Biology and BioTechnology) as his research groups in both Beijing and Shenzhen have expertise in the synthesis of related biologically active compounds which we would like to study in our processes, and also access to a special laboratory containing over 1000 trangenic zebra fish which can be used to study rapidly the developmental effects of the retinoids we are synthesizing.