9418360 Walsh This starter grant award to San Diego State University will support the research of Professor Patrick Walsh. The goal of the research is the development of new chiral metal complexes and their application as catalysts for organic synthesis. Specifically, ligands based on sulfonamide-substituted chiral diamines will be prepared which will form tetrahedral helical complexes when combined with Group IV metals. These strongly acidic complexes will be tested as catalyts for carbon-carbon bond formation activity in the Diels-Alder reaction, the Claisen rearrangement and aldol condensations. This study of asymmetric catalysis and molecular recognition will lead to advances in chiral Lewis acid catalysis. The new ligand complexes will be versatile and will be of general use in organic synthesis.
