Enantioselective gold(III) catalysis using the example of the cycloisomerization of 7-alkynyl cyclohepta-1,3,5-trienes

• Applicant: Dr. Andreas Häring
• Subject Area: Organic Molecular Chemistry - Synthesis and Characterisation
• Term: from 2016 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 325611906

The use of transition-metal catalysts in organic chemistry opens up a broad synthetic access to complex molecular structures, which would be not or only hardly realizable without catalysis. Besides the established synthesis methods using gold-catalysts in the oxidation state I, the use of gold(III)-catalysts is widely unexplored. This project is aimed to investigate gold(III)-catalysis in more detail. It is focused on the development of enantioselective catalysis methods and the comparison to gold(I)-complexes. In general, gold(III)-catalysts exhibit higher activities and sometimes better selectivities compared to gold(I). The high redox potential of gold(III)-compounds and the synthetically challenging preparation of suitable active catalysts are possible reasons for the so far underinvestigated potential of the catalysis with high-valent transition-metals. Using the example of the enantioselective cycloisomerization of 7-alkynyl cyclohepta-1,3,5-trienes the advantages and the synthetic applicability of gold(III)-catalysis will be examined.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professor F. Dean Toste