Gold-Catalysed Cycloisomerisations

Cyclic structures are are ubiquitous in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, natural products and fine chemicals. Thus the preparation of ring systems and being able to control cyclisation reactions is very important and presents a major challenge to organic synthesis. New methods to access these type of species more readily are therefore highly desirable. Shorter, more flexible, easy and efficient routes into useful molecules can have several significant benefits to the wider community. This includes the use of fewer reagents, less hazardous chemicals, and less energy to make important molecules. All of these factors have subsequent benefits in terms of using less of our limited natural resources (chemical and energy) and producing less of the dangerous waste materials that must be disposed off. Potentially, more efficient strategies and transformations can also have economic benefits, making overall processes and the resulting products less costly. The importance of developing more effective approaches cannot therefore be understated and in this research we look at using new highly efficient catalytic methods to access a wide variety of carbo and heterocyclic structures that have clear application throughout synthetic chemistry.