CATGOLD · ADVANCING GOLD CATALYSIS

We plan to chase new goals by exploring the limits of gold chemistry and organic synthesis. A major goal is to promote copper to the level of gold as the catalyst of choice for the activation of alkynes under homogeneous conditions. Another major goal is to develop enantioselective reactions based on a new chiral catalyst design to overcome the inherent limitations of the linear coordination of d10 M(I) coinage metals. We whish to contribute to bridge the gap between homogeneous and heterogeneous gold catalysis discovering new reactions for C-C bond formation via cross-coupling and C-H activation. We will apply new methods based on Au catalysis to fill the gap that exists between chemical synthesis and physical methods such as graphite exfoliation or laser ablation for the synthesis of nanographenes and other large acenes.