With the support from the Chemical Synthesis Program in the Division of Chemistry, Prof. Xumu Zhang and coworkers at Rutgers University New Brunswick conduct research to develop highly reactive, regioselective, and enantioselective asymmetric hydroformylation reactions. Chiral ligands for use in Rh-catalyzed asymmetric hydroformylation reactions will be designed and synthesized. Factors that control the selectivities of the reactions will be investigated. The synthetic utility of the chiral ligands synthesized and the asymmetric reactions developed will be demonstrated in a few challenging asymmetric syntheses of chiral pharmaceutical and fine chemical products.
Hydroformylation reaction is an important fundamental process in chemical industry. The development of efficient asymmetric hydroformylation reactions would have an important impact on the industrial production of fine chemicals. Furthermore, the use of these reactions to improve efficiencies of asymmetric syntheses of chiral bioactive compounds and the research training of students in catalysis and synthetic organic chemistry would benefit the pharmaceutical industry.
