For much of modern history, the use of simple chemical units has served as the primary platform from which to build molecular complexity. While modifications of these feedstock chemicals has enabled incredible progress in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and materials industries, the process itself is often non-trivial. To this end, transition metal catalysis has become an indispensable tool in the development of efficient and synthetically viable strategies for activation of these molecules. However, the continued use of non-earth abundant, toxic and expensive metal catalysts represents an enormous challenge that must be addressed if true sustainability in these industries is to be realized. To this end, our research group focuses on the invention and implementation of basic catalytic alternatives, which secure sustainable and environmentally friendly approaches in organic chemistry.

Metal catalysis

Synthetic methods

New reagents