Title : Rational design of High Performance Catalysts based on Acid Base combination chemistry

Abstract:

Catalysts are the most important substances for efficiently controlling the reactivity and selectivity of organic reactions. Although enzymes control a huge number of reactions in living systems with extremely high substrate-, chemo-, regio-, site- and stereoselectivity, their substrate scopes and applicable conditions are quite limited. We established a rational methodology for designing high-performance unimolecular or supramolecular catalysts based on the chemistry of acid– base combined catalysis for numerous types of organic reactions. The rational design of catalysts using non-covalent bonding interactions is useful for controlling their catalytic activities and selectivities. We classified acid–base combined catalysts into two types: ion pair-type (A) and amphoteric molecule-type (B). Furthermore, type A can be subclassified into acidic ion pair-type (A1), neutral ion pair-type (A2), and basic ion pair-type (A3). On the other hand, type B can be subclassified into conjugationally non-interactive-type (B1) and interactive-type (B2). We developed various high-performance catalysts based on acid–base combination chemistry. I will talk about some recent topics on highperformance acid–base catalysts.

Biography:

Dr. Ishihara studied chemistry at Nagoya University, Japan and graduated as BEng in 1986, MEng in 1988, and DEng 1991, under supervision of Prof. H. Yamamoto. He then joined the research group of Prof. E. J. Corey at Harvard University, USA, as a postdoctoral fellow. He obtained the position of an assistant professor of Nagoya University in 1992, and then promoted an associate professor in 1997 and a full professor of Nagoya University in 2002. His research interests are synthetic organic chemistry, design of acid–base combined catalysts, halogen chemistry, asymmetric catalysis, Green & sustainable chemistry, design of supramolecular catalysts, etc.