Lecturer, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo
New Approach to Functionalizing Aromatic Compounds Based on Designed Ate Complexes
Aromatic structures are the basic architectures for building functionalized materials, such as medicines. However, the tools for the chemoselective, regioselective and stereoselective introduction of various functional groups onto aromatic rings are still limited in their applicability.
Because ate complexes have a soft nucleophilicity and provide high chemo-selectivity and because it is possible to control their reactivity by adjusting the ligation environment, they can be used to open new windows onto benzene architecture chemistry. We are developing a novel approach to functionalizing aromatic compounds using newly designed ate complexes, which should allow for highly efficient controlled functionalization of a wide range of aromatic rings. We recently found that chemoselective halogen-metal exchange, direct deprotonative metalation, and benzyne formation reactions can be performed on functionalized benzene rings using ate complexes. Furthermore, some of the dianion-type ate complexes created by our group are effective for the chemoselective anionic polymerization of multi-functionalized monomers and for the construction of multisubstituted olefins. This project will provide a powerful tool for designing and creating new functionalized molecules.
