Novel Electrochemical and Sonochemical C-H Activation Methods for Heterocycle Synthesis

Saturated oxygen and nitrogen containing heterocycles are widespread across natural products and pharmaceutically active ingredients. Our research is currently directed towards developing novel unified strategies for the synthesis of both these classes of heterocycles, using a variety of Lewis acid promoted methods. However synthetic chemists are constantly driven to produce ‘greener’ transformations, providing products more rapidly, efficiently and in a more sustainable manner. As just such a method, electrochemical methods are undergoing a renaissance as a green method for organic synthesis, including for C-H activation.

The project aims to combine our expertise in the Prins cyclisation reaction (Org. Lett., 2019, 21, 350; J. Org. Chem., 2015, 80, 9868) and synthetic electrochemistry (Org. Lett., 2020, 22, 4000; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2019, 16115; ChemElectroChem., 2019, 6, 4144) and also to combine this with the new and developing area of organic sonochemistry to develop new environmentally friendly methods for heterocycle synthesis and particularly pyrans and piperidines. The project will involve reaction optimisation and mechanistic and computational studies and will then apply the optimised methods both in flow chemistry and in the synthesis of pharmaceutically important compounds.

The project would be suitable for anyone with expertise and strong interests in organic synthetic chemistry.