Research Projects

Catalyst engineering via ligand design concept has been proposed for the for the CH bond activation and borylation of those challenging organic molecules having native functional groups. The proposed catalyst engineering concept contains the following important parameters: (i) design of various bidentate and tri-dentate nitrogen-containing ligands; (ii) use of various noncovalent interactions; (iii) use of most challenging organic substrates having native functional groups for the CH bond borylation; (iv) integration of noncovalent interaction and transition metal catalysts for the preparation of new generation CH activation/borylation catalysts/ligands. The origin of this catalyst engineering concept via ligand design for the direct borylation of small organic molecules having native functional groups have been purposely designed to overcome the long-standing problems of the substrate engineering concept, in which one can easily avoid the employment of various externally used directing groups. Thus, the major disadvantage of the substrate engineering concepts approaches are: (i) too long synthetic operations/steps, (ii) multi-step preparation of the linker/template, (iii) installation of the external directing group into the linker/template, (iv) extra step for the attachment of the linker into the substrate, (v) extra step for the elimination of the linker/directing group and (vi) huge size of the linker/directing group/template. As a result, these operations significantly limit the wide application of that approaches. In this proposed project, our aim is to overcome all these shortcomings via the catalyst engineering concept even with those challenging substrates having multiple native functional groups. Moreover, our aim is to use one particular catalyst, which would cover diverse classes of substrates that was previously thought to be impossible to imagine. To achieve the catalyst engineering concept, various important factors have been considered, which would open new concept/hypothesis for the better understanding and advancement of the science and technology. We also aim to discover in this proposed project for the invention of an “out-of-box concept” that is about catalyst engineering vis ligand design using the first-row transition metals. So far, no methods and thus catalysts or ligands are available using first-row transition metal salts that can eliminate the employment of expensive precious transition metals. So, this proposed project is a breakthrough and “out-of-box concept” concept for the CH bond activation followed by the borylation chemistry that would have remarkable impact towards the modernization of our chemical industries. I certainly believe that this project would also bridge a gap between the academic research and industrial research program. The proposed project is supported by the preliminary but significant results and the “proof-of-concept” is also supported by several control experimental results. Collectively, it is stated that the proposed objectives are clearly stated, the problems are clearly defined, the solutions are also provided, the gaps between the academic research and industrial research are also expected to overcome, a vast amount of new and novel knowledge generation will be occurred, commercialization of ligands/catalysts will be executed.