Electroorganic Chemistry: Electron Transfer Processes for Sustainable Chemical Synthesis

这项工作的目的是探索电流对Wilden实验室最近发展的无过渡金属碳-碳和碳-杂原子键形成反应的影响。由于这些过程已被确认为电子转移过程，我们有兴趣研究它们是否能在电极表面起作用。我们对sp2-sp2‘偶联’反应的发展特别感兴趣，因为这样的发展将为竞争过渡金属催化的过程提供一种碳-碳键形成策略。电有机研究是一个相对较新的领域，许多有机化学家一直回避这一领域。我们相信，成功地证明可以使用该技术生成C-C键将引起工业界和学术界的浓厚兴趣，因为该技术具有“绿色”资质，而且不需要贵金属催化剂(通常是有毒的)。我们将通过关注具有重大经济和/或社会效益的分子来展示我们的方法。我们可以设想通过氧化联芳基偶联来制备阿片骨架的方案的例子。这些阿片剂和其他以罂粟为基础的药物已被世界卫生组织确定为严重疼痛的基本治疗药物，然而，发达国家目前使用这些止痛药全球产量的近80%，因此它们的提取代表着一种不可持续的疼痛管理方法，特别是在发展中国家，多年来长期缺乏止痛药的问题突出。研究领域：电化学科学&化学生物学和生物化学

The aims of this work are to explore the effect of electrical current on the transition metal-free carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bond forming reactions that have recently been developed in the Wilden laboratory. Since these have been identified as being electron-transfer processes, we are interested in examining whether they can be effected at electrode surfaces. We are particularly interested in the development of sp2-sp2 'coupling' reactions as such a development would offer a carbon-carbon bond forming strategy to rival transition metal catalysed processes. The field of electroorganic research is relatively new and one which many organic chemists have shied away from. We believe that success in demonstrating that C-C bonds can be created using this technique will generate intense industrial and academic interest due to the 'green' credentials of the technique and precious (often toxic) metal catalysts not being required. We will showcase our methodology by focusing on molecules of significant economic and/or societal benefit. We can envisage the example of scheme where the opiate skeleton could be prepared by oxidative biaryl coupling. These opiate and other poppy-based medicines have been identified by the WHO as essential treatment of severe pain, however the developed world currently use nearly 80% of global production of these analgesics and as such their extraction represents an unsustainable approach to pain management, particularly in developing countries where a chronic lack of pain medicines has been prominent for many years.Research domain: Electrochemical sciences & Chemical biology and biological chemistry