Our research is focused on the development of new catalytic systems that can sustain efficient and selective processes. Our group specializes in metal-catalyzed C-H functionalization strategies using “S,O ligands”. More details about our open projects are presented below.
1) Metal-catalyzed C-H functionalization
Several chemical transformations rely on cross-coupling reactions, which requires a prefunctionalization of the substrates resulting in chemical waste. The C-H bond is the most common chemical bond in organic compounds, making C-H functionalization a highly attractive strategy to approach green, clean and efficient transformations. However, C-H bonds are usually inert, making their use a challenging process. Increased research has shown that transition metals complexes can be able to overcome this drawback. Our efforts are focused on the use of palladium/S,O ligand systems that have been shown to be highly reactive and selective, even with challenging substrates as alkoxides or anilines.
2) Ligand design and mechanistic studies
Ligands are an important part of a metal complex and can have a great influence in their catalytic activity. Ligand design has led to rapid progress in homogeneous catalysis, helping to stabilize reactive intermediates or serving as cooperative moieties. In the field of metal-catalyzed C-H functionalization, the right ligand could help to overcome the narrow substrate scopes and/or harsh reaction conditions. In our research, we focused on the development of new S,O ligands that have shown excellent activity towards aryl C-H functionalization. We study the influence of these ligands to obtain a better understanding of the catalytic process through the isolation of reactive intermediates, kinetic studies and computational methods.
3) Electrosynthesis
In electrosynthesis, the chemical transformation is done inside an electrochemical cell. Using electrical energy to drive the reactivity, this method can offer improved selective and yield. We aim to apply this methodology in the selective synthesis of organic compounds. of interest