Green and Sustainable Catalysts for Synthesis of Organic Building Blocks

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Hans-Joachim Knölker
• Subject Area: Solid State and Surface Chemistry, Material Synthesis ; Organic Molecular Chemistry - Synthesis and Characterisation
• Term: from 2014 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 246743874

Based on the results of the previous funding period, we envisage to establish iron-catalyzed dehydrogenative homo- and cross-coupling reactions of various substrates using oxygen as terminal oxidant. In particular, aryl/aryl, aryl/vinyl, aryl/alkyl and benzyl/benzyl cross-coupling reactions will be in the focus of this project. The feasibility of asymmetric syntheses will be explored using chiral iron catalysts and/or chiral additives. The newly established methods will be applied to the synthesis of organic synthetic building blocks and of selected natural products. In addition, we will investigate iron-catalyzed selective oxygenation and nitrogenation reactions including C(sp3)–H bond activation. Another goal is the application of our iron-catalyzed Wacker-type reaction to the synthesis of natural products. The design of novel iron-complexes to generate fine-tuned catalysts for the envisaged transformations is a crucial element of this project.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants