Project Title
Details
Development of efficient Carbon-Carbon coupling methodology by
Carbon-Hydrogen bond activation for pharmaceutical and specialty
chemicals synthesis
Principal Investigator
Dr. Jayasree Seayad completed her Ph.D in chemistry in the field of
homogeneous catalysis at the National Chemical Laboratory, India in 2000.
Following this she carried out four years of postdoctoral research in
Germany at the Leibniz Institute of Organic Catalysis (IfOK), Rostock and at
Max-Planck-Institut fur Kohlenforschung, Muelheim an der Ruhr. In 20042005, she was awarded the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt (AvH)
postdoctoral research fellowship. Jayasree joined A*STAR in 2006: 20062009, Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology; 2009- present,
Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences. She is a Research Scientist
in the New Synthesis Techniques and Application group, ICES. Her research
interests are transition metal- and organo- catalysis for organic synthesis,
C1 chemistry and synthesis of biologically active molecules.
Project Synopsis
The ability to carry out sustainable chemistry is one of the challenges that
the chemical and pharmaceutical industries face in recent times. From an
industrial perspective, efficient, versatile, environmentally benign and
scalable processes are needed.
This has led to the search for new
technologies using readily available and environmentally benign reagents
as well as atom economic processes. This project aims the development of
sustainable Carbon-Carbon (C-C) cross coupling methodologies based on
Carbon-Hydrogen (C-H) bond activation.
Cross coupling reactions, in which two organic molecules combine
together in the presence of a metal catalyst to form a new organic
molecule with a new Carbon-Carbon (C-C) bond, are extensively used in
the synthesis of pharmaceutical products and specialty chemicals. The
conventional cross coupling reactions make use of pre-activated coupling
partners such as organic halides and an organometallic reagent (a
compound which has a direct bond between a metal and carbon). While
these methods have been generally reliable, they suffer from a number of
severe drawbacks. These include the synthesis of coupling partners which
are intrinsically wasteful since it necessitates the introduction and
subsequent disposal of hazardous activating agents. This problem is not
trivial, requiring several steps and often suffering from lower efficiency as
well as the secondary issues of generating waste from reagents, solvents
and purification processes. Another issue is that organic halides
themselves are environmentally hazardous. Consequently, pharmaceutical
and specialty chemical industries are seeking novel methodologies for
coupling of organic molecules by minimal pre-activation and avoiding use
and generation of toxic reagents.
The successful completion of this project would lead to the development
of efficient, versatile and environmentally benign C-C coupling
methodologies by the direct coupling of two hydrocarbons by C-H
activation. Application of such methodologies in pharmaceutical and
specialty chemical industries will not only enhance the efficiency of their
manufacturing tremendously, but also will have a huge positive impact on
the environment since it avoids the use and generation of hazardous
chemicals and significantly reduces waste generation. In addition, this is an
ideal opportunity for Singaporeans to be trained in sustainable chemistry
and to be involved in world class research in this area which will result in
high impact publications and Intellectual property.
Total research team
strength and talents
training and knowledge
transfer potential if any
Estimated completion
date
This project team consists of 7 senior scientists from New Synthesis
Techniques and Applications (NSTA) and Process Science and Modeling
(PSM) groups of ICES. The team members from NSTA have expertise in
homogeneous catalysis, organometallic and synthetic organic
chemistry. The researchers from PSM have broad experience in
different disciplines such as in situ spectroscopic measurements, signal
processing, chemometrics, and core chemical engineering areas such
as reaction engineering, process control, process supervision and
optimization. In addition, two research staff/students, with bachelor,
master or doctoral degrees will be recruited to join this project and to
be trained in sustainable chemistry. This strong team with
complementary research experiences will ensure the successful
completion of this project.
July 2013