Chiral Porous Materials for Enantioselective Catalysis and Separations

University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Abstract

This award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry program supports research by Professor Wenbin Lin at the University of North Carolina to develop rational synthetic strategies toward homochiral and highly porous metal-organic coordination networks (MOCNs) and to explore their applications in heterogeneous asymmetric catalysis and chiral separations. Three key issues concerning heterogeneous asymmetric catalysts based on homochiral porous MOCNs will be addressed: rational synthesis of homochiral MOCNs with permanent porosity and appropriate functionalities, development of novel strategies for the synthesis of highly porous homochiral MOCNs from typically unresolvable (achiral) building blocks, and the utilities of homochiral porous MOCNs in practical enantioselective catalysis and separations. Highly porous chiral MOCNs with desirable functional groups and appropriate metal linkers will result from the proposed research, which should possess tailorable chiral pockets and functionalities that are exploitable for enantioselective separations and catalysis. The proposed research will develop new bottom-up approaches towards efficient heterogeneous asymmetric catalysts that can be readily recycled and re-used and can prevent the leaching of often toxic metals from the catalysts into the organic products. Graduate students and postdoctoral research associates participating in the proposed interdisciplinary research will be trained with the skills that are crucial to their future careers as Ph.D. chemists. The proposed research will also be integrated into the training of undergraduates and high school students.