The 619 th meeting of the Sydney University Chemical Society will be held on Wednesday 16th August in Le Fèvre Lecture Theatre 2 of the Chemistry Building on the Camperdown campus of The University of Sydney. The speaker will be Professor Shu Kobayashi
Lewis Acid Catalysis in Aqueous Media
Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences
The University of Tokyo
Lewis acid-catalyzed reactions are now of great interest because unique reactivity and selectivity are often observed under mild reaction conditions. In this lecture, several Lewis acid-catalyzed reactions in aqueous media will be discussed. The use of water as a reaction solvent has received currently considerable attention in synthetic organic chemistry. Water is a safe, cheap, and environmentally friendly solvent. Whereas catalytic asymmetric carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions in organic solvents have reached a fairly high level of sophistication, comparable progress has not yet been achieved for these reactions in aqueous solvents. In particular, these reactions in water without using organic co-solvents are difficult to be achieved. Recently, whereas some catalytic reactions in water have been developed, catalytic asymmetric Mannich-type reactions in water have not been reported in spite of the synthetic utility of the Mannich adducts. Asymmetric Mannich-type reactions provide useful routes for the synthesis of optically active β-amino ketones or esters, which are versatile chiral building blocks for the preparation of many nitrogen-containing, biologically important compounds. In this lecture, a new system that enables the enantio- and diastereoselective, stereospecific Mannich-type reactions in water without any organic co-solvents will be introduced. The reactivity and selectivity obtained here have not been achieved by any catalytic asymmetric Mannich-type reactions in organic solvents. In addition, catalytic asymmetric hydroxymethylation of silicon enolates with a formaldehyde aqueous solution will be also discussed.
Wednesday 16th August at 5:30pm
Le Fèvre Lecture Theatre 2
Refreshments from 5:00pm