Research Projects

This proposal focuses on the synthesis of specially activated alkynes and alkenes catalyzed by gold. These carbon system substituents, which are intrinsically polarized, can participate in gold-catalyzed transformations with enhanced regio-, stereo-, and chemoselectivities compared to their non-activated counterparts. The chemistry of specially activated carbon systems is extremely rich and varied under homogeneous gold catalysis. The proposed research consists of four sections: synthesis of spiro-alkanes and their application to bioactive natural products, synthesis of bridged bicyclic compounds, synthesis of a substituted dihydro carbazole skeleton, and cross-couplings between inactive arenes and alkynes. The synthesis of spiro-alkanes is an interesting and challenging task for organic chemists. The highly substituted spiro-alkane skeleton 2 from compound 1 can be synthesized using gold as a catalyst, which can be used for the total synthesis of natural products with good biological activity. The synthesis of hetero bicyclic compounds via gold as an efficient catalyst can be applied to the synthesis of bioactive natural products like hemibrevetoxin. The proposed synthesis of highly substituted bicyclo octane derivatives is of great interest due to their rigid frameworks in natural products. The proposed synthesis of a substituted dihydro carbazole skeleton in the presence of a transition metal catalyst can be applied to the total synthesis of indole monoterpene alkaloids. Versatile dehydrogenative cross-couplings of unactivated arenes with alkynes and olefins can be performed in the presence of gold complexes as catalysts.