Research Projects

Transition-metal-mediated cross-coupling reactions are a powerful tool for regioselective C-C bond formation, essential for the synthesis of many target molecules in material, synthetic, medical, and pharmaceutical sciences. Organozinc, zirconium, organoboranes, organomagnesium, organosttannates, and organosilicon reagents are commonly used for this purpose, but they often require high loading of Pd-catalyst, phosphine ligand, and high temperature, which can lead to difficulties in synthesis and product purification. Organosilanes are becoming popular due to their high stability, less toxicity, and easy incorporation into various substrates. Hiyama cross-coupling is an emerging alternative for efficient C-C bond-forming processes for synthesis of natural products, such as hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA reductase inhibitor NK-104, antibiotic isodomoic acid G, and papulacandin D. However, organosilicon compounds are less reactive due to the low degree of polarization Si-C bond. To address these issues, a new catalyst must be developed that is compatible with recyclability, ligand-free, low catalyst loading, functional group tolerability, and easy Si-C bond polarization. The proposed oxygen bridged heterogeneous bimetallic catalyst [M1-O-M2] is proposed, which can overcome the desired limitations by synergistic transition metal dual catalysis. The main objective is to dope a suitable metal catalyst with existing metal catalyst to increase efficiency and reactivity for Hiyama cross-coupling reactions.