Copper catalysed formation of C-X bonds

Copper-catalysed Ullmann condensation reactions represent an under-developed alternative to the use of Buchwald-Hartwig palladium chemistry for the formation of carbon-heteroatom bonds. However, the systems suffer from poorer efficiency and substrate scope. In the last decade a major innovation in the Ullmann condensation is the use of bidentate ligands which are believed to stabilise on-cycle catalytic species, facilitating oxidative addition, and preventing over-coordination of the nucleophile. This has led to improved reaction conditions and reduced catalytic loading; though copper systems still lag behind their palladium counterpart.
This project will discover new copper-ligand systems exploiting N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs), with a second coordinating group. A comprehensive investigation covering new ligand designs and reaction conditions will be carried out in order to develop optimised systems for accessing valuable motifs in drug discovery.