Research Projects

Carbenium and onium ions are crucial intermediates and electrophiles in organic transformations. They are typically generated in the presence of nucleophiles due to their short-lived transient nature. However, unstable or inert nucleophiles cannot trap these ions, making their accumulation in solution irreversible and subsequent reaction with other nucleophiles a challenge. The electro-oxidative generation of cations serves as an irreversible method to accumulate these ions for organic synthesis. These ions accumulate in solution, forming a cation pool. The feasibility of this method depends on the cations' stability, the nature of counterions and solvent, and the reaction temperature. Halogen and chalcogen cations are difficult to accumulate in solution as "cation pools" due to their instability. Electrolysis is a sophisticated process often carried out at very low temperatures with utmost care. The development of a simple chemical method for the generation and accumulation of organic cations, which can be designated as "cation pools" with reasonable stability in an irreversible pathway, and their subsequent trapping, which may lead to synthetically important structural motif, is demanding. This project aims to develop chemical processes for accumulating stabilized carbenium and onium ions and study their utility in organic synthesis through C-C and C-hetero atom bond formation.