Metal-, Catalyst-, Light- and Electrolysis-Free Decarboxylative C-H Functionalisation of Heterocycles

This is a PhD research project in Chemistry. We aim to extend our sustainable methodology to develop scalable, late-stage C-H functionalisations of more pharmaceutically relevant heterocycles. In our proof-of-principle work, we predominantly based our optimisation studies on isoquinolines. In this proposal, we will investigate the C H functionalisations of important classes of heterocycles, which were not the focus of our proof-of-principle study, for example purines and azoles. Full optimisation and substrate scope studies will be carried out on the alkylation, acylation as well as carbamoylation reactions, and gram-scale reactions as well as late-stage C-H functionalisations will also be demonstrated to showcase the scalability and functional group tolerance.
This proposal lies within the EPSRC research area of synthetic organic chemistry.