The Development of Metal Catalysed Benzannulation Protocols for the Synthesis of Aromatic Boronic Esters

A key process by which organic chemists build molecules is via carbon-carbon bond forming reactions. The precursors of this process should be stable, easy to use and undergo the key C-C bond formation efficiently under mild conditions. Aromatic boronic acids and esters are one such class of organic compounds. Indeed, their stability and versatile reactivity make them one of the most valuable classes of synthetic intermediates in modern organic synthesis. We have found an unusual way to access these compounds very quickly, but our current approaches often require high temperatures and long reaction times. We hope to speed up these processes and allow them to run at lower temperatures by introducing metal catalysed variants of the cycloaddition strategy. These processes will deliver equally important synthetic intermediates, but under conditions that make these reactions more economical and more attractive.