RESEAECH
Organic synthesis, Asymmetric catalysis, Carbene/carbenoid chemistry, Nitrene/nitrenoid chemistry, Base metal catalysis, Photochemistry, Organic electrosynthesis, Medicinal chemistry
Our research has a fundamental interest in developing innovative synthetic methodologies in organic chemistry, with a particular interest in the development of mutually beneficial substrate-catalysis concepts and their application to complex targets, especially biologically relevant compounds. Researchers in the group gain great interdisciplinary knowledge from synthetic organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, and medicinal chemistry, also learn valuable characterization and analytical skills, such as synthetic skills, NMR spectroscopy, and liquid chromatography.
1) Selective Functionalization of Aliphatic C-H bonds by Aromatic N-oxide Catalyst.
The direct functionalization of aliphatic C-H bonds is of great interest and importance in organic synthesis and catalysis. Our program is developing novel single-electron oxidation chemistry of aromatic N-oxides via the enabling technology of photoredox catalysis for the development of selective hydrogen-atom transfer (HAT) catalysts.
Publication: ACS Catalysis, 2022, accepted. (10.26434/chemrxiv-2022-0rb4h)
2) Exploration of new reactivities of alkynes by harnessing visible light energy and electrochemsitry.
The investigation of alkyne activation by harnessing visible light energy and/or electrochemistry would allow new discovery and invention across the molecular sciences. Specifically, the development of novel synthetic methodology involving alkyne activation and visible light catalysis would provide the effective construction of heterocyclic compounds that constitute the majority of pharmaceutically important drugs and drug candidates.
Publications: Chem. Eur. J. 2019, 25, 6638-6644. Chem. Commun. 2021, 57 (43), 5254-5257. Adv. Synth. Catal. 2022, 364, 1179-1184.
3) Design and synthesis of earth-abundant and biocompatible catalysts to develop highly selective and efficient catalytic processes for solving major synthetic challenges.
Increasing demand for low-cost and sustainable catalytic methods is inspiring chemists to develop effective base metal catalysts in organic synthesis. This project aims to develop new earth-abundant and biocompatible catalysts to address synthetically relevant challenges in catalysis and to provide new structurally complex products with high efficiencies and selectivities.
Publication: Chem. Sci. 2019, 10, 7958 - 7963.
3) Novel reaction discovery and methodology developments would allow highly selective and efficient synthetic approaches to numbers of novel organic molecules, whose biological effectiveness would be assessed.
