BEST-CAT envisions exploiting KETs (i.e. flow chemistry) in synergy with photocatalysis and organic electrochemistry to develop new sustainable and efficient transformations.

Project goals

GOAL 1

Suitable protocol for an enantioselective photocatalytic reductive coupling of bisenones and fluorinated derivates to synthesize heterocycles of biological interest.

GOAL 2

Development of new isocyanide insertion reactions involving alkyl radicals from unactivated helides, also under flow conditions, as platforms to prepare a wide variet of products.

GOAL 3

Synthetize biomimetric products by eletrochemical induced cyclization process.

Organic molecules are undoubtedly essential and vital for everyday modern life, but their increasing demand, due also to the continuous growth of the human population, arises issues related to the sustainability of their production. In the past, the driving force in the development of new organic products and processes was merely economics, but nowadays it is no longer possible to ignore other aspects related to sustainability, green chemistry, and environmental respect. In fact, the current challenge of organic synthesis is the development of new protocols fulfilling the principles of sustainability. In this contest, the efficiency (i.e. the ability to obtain a product wasting less resources) of organic synthesis becomes a crucial point and the chemists are called to answer this task.

Organic electrochemistry instead uses electrons as traceless redox equivalents to perform the process without the need for additional redox reagents, wasting fewer resources. When photons and electrons are generated by renewable resources, photocatalysis and organic electrochemistry show their full potential.

In addition, flow chemistry can be combined with other technologies, such as photocatalysis and organic electrosynthesis for the development of new chemistry processes not practicable using traditional approaches. In photocatalysis, the catalyst absorbs photons going to the excited state, opening the door to reaction pathways that would be impossible at the ground state.

The use of key enabling technologies (KETs) offers an excellent starting point for this goal and in particularly continuous flow chemistry is extraordinarily suitable in the development of more performing and cleaner processes. Thanks to the miniaturization of reactors the flow chemistry approach has gained ground in modern organic chemistry allowing to develop industrial processes characterized by high safety, low waste generation and energy efficiency. Flow reactors offer significant improvements in mixing and heat management, scalability, energy efficiency, waste generation, safety, access to a wider range of reaction conditions and unique opportunities in organic synthesis.

BEST-CAT specific aims

AIM 1

Enantioselective photocatalytic cyclization of bisenones under flow conditions to afford enantomerically enriched functionalized cyclic molecules

AIM 2

Visible light-induced Palladium catalyzed reactions of unactivated alkyl halides and their implementation under flow conditions

AIM 3

Electrocatalyzed biomimetic cyclizations intrinsically characterized by a high atom-economy to assemble structures with high molecular complexity in a single step with in a highly controlled fashion.

People

Contacts

Prof. Sergio Rossi – Department of Chemistry @ Universitò degli Studi di Milano – sergio.rossi@unimi.it

Prof. Giuseppe Zanoni – Department of Chemistry @ Università degli Studi di Pavia – gz@unipv.it

Dr. Chiara Lambruschini – Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry @ Università degli Studi di Genova – chiara.lambruschini@unige.it