Using Transition Metal Catalysis to Achieve New Reactivity and Selectivity for Organic Synthesis

构建分子的能力对分子科学至关重要。为了使新的合成方法被接受为有用的工具，需要满足一套苛刻的标准;成本、环境影响、操作简单和反应效率的优势是需要考虑的一些最重要的因素。该提案的重点是开发使用基于过渡金属催化剂的工具制备分子的新方法。过渡金属呈现的独特反应性使它们成为探索和解决上述几个问题的有吸引力的试剂。特别是，我们计划使用过渡金属催化剂，使容易获得的有机分子转化为高价值的功能化分子，用于进一步的操作。关键目标之一是以高度选择性的方式实现这些反应，当可能形成几种相关分子的混合物时，仅提供单一产物。我们还计划提供易于操作且不需要特殊处理技术的方法。根据该提案进行的具体研究将集中在开发一种新的试剂系统，该系统允许催化剂逆转羰基的正常反应性。这种类型的极性反转将允许探索使用标准催化剂方法无法实现的广泛反应。

The ability to build molecules is crucial to molecular science. For new synthetic methods to be accepted as useful tools a demanding set of criteria need to be satisfied; advantages of cost, environmental impact, operational simplicity and reaction efficiency are some of the most important factors to be considered. The focus of this proposal is to develop new methods to prepare molecules using tools based on transition metal catalysts.The unique reactivities presented by transition metals make them attractive reagents to explore and to tackle several of the issues discussed above. In particular we plan to use transition metal catalysts to allow the conversion of readily available organic molecules into high value functionalised molecules useful for further manipulation. One of the key aims is to achieve these reactions in a highly selective manner, delivering only single products when the formation of mixtures of several related molecules is possible. We also plan to deliver methods that are easy to perform and that require no special handling techniques.The specific research conducted under this proposal will focus on developing a new reagent system that allows catalysts to reverse the normal reactivity of carbonyl groups. This type of polarity reversal will allow a wide range of reactions to be explored that are not accessible using standard catalyst methodology.