In this project funded by the Chemical Synthesis Program of the Chemistry Division, Professor Wei Wang of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at University of New Mexico will explore new strategies termed "oxidative enamine catalysis" for the formation of C-C and C=C bonds. The synthetic strategy can be explored for a number of new cascade reactions to generate structurally diverse and biologically interesting building blocks and molecular architectures. Successfully accomplishing the project will provide powerful synthetic tools for the practice of organic synthesis and molecule constructions, which are particularly useful in the fields of pharmaceutical, chemical, agricultural industry, and biological sciences.
The research has a broader impact on chemical synthesis by enabling the facile and atom-economic synthesis of versatile building blocks from simple and readily available chemicals under mild reaction conditions. Furthermore, "one-pot" cascade ways to make complex molecular architectures will address the important challenges in modern organic synthesis that are the improvement of synthetic efficiency, the use of sustainable and inexpensive chemicals, the avoidance of toxic agents, and the reduction of waste and hazardous byproducts. Finally, the broader impacts are also demonstrated in training historically underrepresented undergraduate students, by incorporating research results and experiments into undergraduate teaching labs, and by involving graduate students.
