Research
Organic Synthesis and Catalysis
We design new (chiral) catalysts to be employed in (asymmetric) C-C bond forming reactions, reductions, and multicomponent transformations. The catalytic methods that we develop are then employed in the synthesis of molecular targets aiming at proving their utility in real-life applications.
An example of our recent contribution is the development of novel catalysts based on the combination of Cu-salts and phosphine oxides, which allowed for the α-arylation of silyl enol ethers (JACS 2021, 10.1021/jacs.0c13236), or the employment of Co(Salox) complexes for the asymmetric conjugate reduction (ACR) of α,β-unsaturated compounds (EurJOC 2023, 10.1002/ejoc.202201492). If you are interested in ACR, just check a recent review we wrote on the topic (ACIE 2023, 10.1002/anie.202216649)!
Physical-Organic Chemistry
In addition to classical experimental techniques (kinetic analysis, spectroscopy, etc.), we use computational chemistry and cheminformatics to elucidate reaction mechanisms and to perform computational predictions of chemical reactivity and catalytic performances.
For instance we recently employed computational chemistry to highlight the stereochemical course of a Pd-catalyzed enantioselective α-arylation of ketones (JOC 2020, 10.1021/acs.joc.0c01768), and developed a multivariate model for the prediction of organic compounds nucleophilicity (JOC 2021, 10.1021/acs.joc.0c02952).