New Multifunctional Catalysts for Asymmetric Phospho-Transfer

新催化剂的开发继续受到对更有效、更具成本效益和更有选择性的工艺的需求的推动。我们感兴趣的是一种特殊类型的过程，称为磷酸转移，这是一种非常广泛的转化类型，可以用来制造药物分子、新材料和聚合物；事实上，磷转移过程是我们身体工作方式的基础。该项目涉及开发更高效的催化剂，用于磷转移的一个强有力的例子-磷酸-羟醛(PA)反应。这一过程可以说是生产酶抑制剂、抗生素和抗病毒药物等含磷化学品的最通用和最直接的途径。在每种应用中，磷分子的详细形状是获得所需性质的关键。几个团队正在开发可以控制磷酸-羟醛反应的催化剂，以便只产生一种形状的产物分子。然而，仍然存在重大问题，其中最主要的是没有开发出既高效又择形但能够在室温下空气和水存在的情况下工作的催化剂体系。我们在这里的目标是建立在我们最近发现的新催化剂的基础上，这些催化剂在室温下可以在空气和水的存在下运行。未来开发这些新催化剂的关键是能够更好地控制磷产品的形状，我们的目标是通过计算机辅助建模和合成化学的结合来实现这一目标。

The development of new catalysts continues to be driven by the need for ever more efficient, cost-effective and selective processes. We are interested in in a particular type of process called phospho-transfer, an extremely broad class of transformation that can be used to make drug molecules, new materials and polymers; indeed, phospho-transfer processes are fundamental to the way our bodies work. This project concerns the development of more efficient and effective catalysts for one powerful example of phospho-transfer, the phospho-aldol (PA) reaction. This process is arguably the most versatile and direct route to phosphorus-containing chemicals such as enzyme inhibitors, antibiotics and antivirals. Within each application, it is the detailed shape of the phosphorus molecule that is crucial in eliciting the required properties.Several teams are developing catalysts which can control the phospho-aldol reaction such that only one shape of product molecule will result. However, significant problems still remain chief amongst which is the fact that no catalyst system been developed which is both highly effective and shape selective but which is capable of working at room temperature in the presence of air and water. Our objectives here build upon our recent discovery of new catalysts which operate at room temperature in the presence of air and water. The key to future exploitation of these new catalysts is to be able to control the shape of the phosphorus products a little better and it is this that we aim to achieve through a combination of computer-aided modelling and synthetic chemistry.