Research Projects

Catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation (AH) is a green method for synthesizing optically active chiral compounds, with applications in industry sectors for chiral heterocycles, amino acids, amines, amides, alcohols, and alkanes in enantioenriched form. Direct access to enantiopure heterocycles by heteroarene hydrogenation remains a key research topic in academia and industry. Chiral indolines, tetrahydroquinolines (THQs), and tetrahydroisoquinolines (THIQs) are important synthetic targets due to their abundant distribution in natural products and medicinally notable drugs. Direct catalytic hydrogenation of saturated heterocycles is highly advantageous due to their environmental benignness and is mainly reported with transition metals. However, the development of sustainable asymmetric catalytic synthetic routes using inexpensive 3D-transition metals is still in a nascent stage. The use of Co and Mn for these processes is a paramount goal. This research proposal proposes systematic design and synthesis of earth abundant, non-toxic chiral Mn and Co-metal complexes, sequential synthesis, and asymmetric hydrogenation to synthesize these scaffolds. The proposal also plans to synthesize various bioactive natural THIQ products, including drugs for Alzheimer's disease, THQ-based antiviral agents, and Indoline-based antihypertensive active natural product Pentopril. The proposed catalytic protocol will be employed to synthesize these products.