Accessing Molecular Complexity and Funcationality from Active Methylene Compounds via Asymmetric Catalysis

Organic synthesis often recruits active methylene compounds (AMCs) to build complex structures, as these chemical feedstocks are produced in more than ten thousand tons per year. While synthetic routes originating from these compounds have found wide application in manufacturing fine chemicals such as vitamins, agrochemicals, and cosmetics, the majority of these terminal products are structurally flat and non-enantioenriched. Here, the team aims to unleash the potential of AMCs in preparing scaffolds of higher three-dimensionality stereoselectively via asymmetric catalysis. With synergistic collaboration across Hong Kong, diverse transition metal, organic, and heterogeneous catalysts will be designed, examined, and optimized to enable asymmetric transformation of the ester, acid, and nitrile motifs in AMCs. The success of this project is expected to provide expeditious and modular approaches towards functionalized molecules with significance across academia research and industrial manufacturing, such as chiral amines, nitriles, and amino acids.