Research Projects

Heterocycles are crucial in supramolecular and medicinal chemistry, with a wide range of materials and drug molecules having nitrogen-containing heterocyclic scaffolds. The development of novel methods for designing and synthesizing these nitrogen-containing heterocycles is abundant, with the formation of C-C bonds often beyond the imagination of synthetic chemists. To demonstrate the accessibility of this approach, an investigation was conducted to develop divergent C-H functionalization reactions of un-activated C-H bonds. This direct functionalization of un-activated C-H bonds continues to challenge chemists and inspire new chemistry. The proposal aims to use the fascinating chemistry of double C-H activation and oxidative annulation to fashion a route to diverse heterocyclic scaffolds, including scaffolds such as imidazo[1,2-a]chromeno[3,4-c]pyridine, chromeno[3',4':3,4]pyrido[2,1-b]quinazoline, 1H-phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole, and biological active moieties like rutaecarpine and benzo[c][1,2]diazepine analogs. The scientific objectives of the proposal include synthesizing new coumarin and quinazoline-based analogs by double C-H bond functionalization and annulation reaction derived from simple conjugates, gaining deeper insight into the aza-Michael reaction and mechanistic aspects of alkenylation/alkylation followed by cyclization, exploring substitutions and time-dependent reactivity switch to access novel 1H-phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole and related compounds, conducting photophysical studies to explore their fluorescent properties, synthesizing biological active rutaecarpine and benzo[c][1,2]diazepine analogues, and accessing novel quinoxaline-2(1H)-one analogs and their further transformations to industrial relevant applications.