DOMINOCAT · Asymmetric Organodomino Catalysis

Nature is able to carry out numerous parallel reactions transforming countless chemical compounds in a single cell. For the stereoselective synthesis of complex, biologically relevant molecules, such as pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, chemists both in academia and industry typically still use “stop and go” procedures with all its disadvantages, such as the isolation and purification of intermediates after each step causing a lot of waste and high costs.Since around the turn of the millennium, the research area of organocatalysis has grown with a breathtaking speed and can now be seen as a third pillar of catalysis beside bio- and metal catalysis. Very recently, organocatalytic multi-component domino reactions came into the focus of synthetic chemistry by mimicking Nature’s enzymatic cascades.Based on our pioneering contributions in this field of asymmetric organodomino catalysis we aim at developing novel simple, triple, quadruple and even more complex organocascade protocols as well as sequential one-pot-procedures thereby significantly advancing the strategic arsenal for the synthesis of complex biologically active enantiopure compounds bearing multiple stereocenters. Spectroscopic and kinetic studies, especially high resolution ESI-MS measurements which opens an insight into a running domino reaction and accompanying theoretical calculations (in cooperation) will allow a deep mechanistic understanding. The combination of organocatalysis with metal, especially gold catalysis will pave the way for completely new environmentally benign and “green” enantioselective multi-component one-pot techniques scalable for future industrial applications.