Research areas

Our research group focuses on the use of hypervalent iodine (HVI) reagents as a method of organic synthesis. In our lab, we use HVI reagents to add halogens to molecules and produce cyclopropane systems.

Radiofluorination is a technology at the centre of the development of imaging probes for positron-emitting tomography (PET). What sets apart hypervalent iodine-based reagents in fluorination is their ability to effectively transfer an "F⁺" synthon, therefore reversing the polarity of the fluoride (F^-) obtained from standard cyclotron sources. In order to successfully conduct the project, Leanne focuses on the design of hypervalent iodine precursors which will both readily undergo ligand exchange with fluoride and allow for facile purification of the fluorinating agent before the reaction with the scaffold of interest (probe).

As iodonium ylides are only operative for methylenes flanked by two electron withdrawing substituents, we are trying to prepare monocarbonyl iodonium ylides (MCIYs), and explore their efficacy as metallocarbene precursors. MCIYs can be generated in situ from Wittig reagents, which then act as carbene precursors.