Research Projects

Mechanically Interlocked Molecules (MIMs) are an important class of molecules that fascinate many synthetic chemists. With newer synthetic methodology, the functional group inside the MIMs now varies substantially. Interestingly, the phosphines analogues of MIMs are scares in the literature due to the sensitive nature of phosphines. In the project, we envisioned making MIMs with bis-phosphine motifs that could be utilised for metal coordination. The metal-coordinated complex could be utilised to make a C-N cross-coupled product. The macrocycle with the phosphine ligand could catalyse the C-N cross-coupling reaction allowing the formation of MIMs via an active temple method. Due to confinement around the active site, the MIMs ligand could give better regioselectivity for C-N cross-coupling reaction. It might lead to a newer ligand space for cross-coupling reaction and allow us to understand the role of a mechanical bond in catalysis.