Our Research Interests
We are interested in the development of novel catalytic molecular transformations and the application of such to the synthesis of bio-active molecules and pharmaceuticals
TM-Catalyzed Organic Transformations
Transfer Hydrogenation
Reduction of organic compounds by transfer hydrogenation presents many advantages, unlike the requirement of pressurized hydrogen gas and the extensive reaction setup needed in the direct hydrogenation. The development of sustainable catalytic methods that form desired products from the readily available and environmentally benign feedstock is an ongoing objective in this field. We are interested in developing readily obtainable, inexpensive, easy to use and biomass-derived alcohols and organic acids as hydrogen donors.
Dicarbofunctionalization
The transion-metal-catalyzed difunctionalization of alkenes enables the synthesis of complex molecules from simple available alkenes with high atom and step-economy by assembling two functionalities across the double bond. The side reactions between the two coupling partners and the site selectivity are the formidable challenges in dicarbofuctionalization. Our efforts in this area will be focused on developing domino/cascade reactions to access complex hetero-cycles of medicinal relevance.
Dearomatization/Carbene Chemistry
The dearomatization of indoles represents the most efficient approach for accessing highly valued indolines and other alkaloids which is a common motif features in many biologically active compounds and natural products. We are exploring the cascade dearomatization strategy to construct complex molecular architectures.
C-H Functionalization
The selective cleavage of unactivated C–H bonds remains an active, comparatively difficult and long standing problem in the synthetic organic chemistry. We are working on the challenges of C–H activation for site selectivity by Investigating sustainable 3d metal catalysts and the use of intrinsic directing groups.