Research Projects

Halogenated organic molecules represent an interesting class of compounds wherein some members such as chlorinated organics are ubiquitous in nature (alkaloids, terpenoids) and are employed widely as synthetic intermediates and functional materials. On the other hand, fluorinated organics are largely synthetic and are important from the perspective of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and materials. Although the impact of chlorinated organics in therapeutically relevant molecules is growing fluorinated molecules are established as high value targets in the pharmaceutical industry. The incorporation of fluorine atom(s) in small molecules is a key area of research in synthetic and medicinal chemistry fields. The focus of this project will be to develop photochemical strategies for the creation of new chlorinated and fluorinated molecular architectures. The proposed reactions represent novel ways to incorporate halogen and haloalkyl moieties using either hydrogen atom transfer, halogen atom transfer or pi-bond functionalization. We plan to develop fluorinations using fluoride ion as the source of fluorine (as opposed to electrophilic fluorinating agents) because of the advantages in terms of chemoselectivity and wider applicability.