DECCAPAC · Design and Exploitation of C-C and C-H Activation Pathways in Asymmetric Catalysis

Synthesizing organic molecules in high purity with designed properties is of utmost importance for pharmaceutical applications and material- and polymer sciences including the efficient production of enantiopure compounds and the compliance with ecological concerns and sustainability. The efficiency of all reaction classes has improved over the past decades. However, the basic principle and execution did not change: The target molecule is disconnected into donor and acceptor synthons and appropriate functional groups need to be introduced and adjusted to carry out the envisioned coupling. These additional steps decrease the yield and efficiency, are costly in time, resources and produce waste. The introduction of new functionalities by direct C-H or C-C bond activation is a unique and highly appealing strategy. The range of substrates is virtually unlimited, including hydrocarbons, small molecules and polymers. Such dream reactions avoid any pre-functionalization, shorten synthetic routes, make unsought disconnections possible and allow for a more efficient usage of our dwindling resources. Despite recent progress in the activations of inert bonds, narrow scopes, poor reactivities and harsh conditions hamper most general practical applications. Especially, enantioselective activations are a longstanding challenge. The outlined project seeks to address these issues by the development and exploitation of new catalytic enantioselective C-H and C-C functionalizations of broadly available organic substrates, using chiral Rh- and Pd- catalysts, additionally supported by automated screening and computational techniques. These reactions will be then applied in the streamlined synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant scaffolds and of compounds for organic electronics.