Description:
Princeton Docket # 12-2801
Catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation reactions are important to
prepare single enantiomer drugs, agrochemicals and fragrances. Present technologies for such reactions
involve catalysts based on iridium, rhodium, platinum, and ruthenium. These precious metals are expensive,
toxic, have fluctuations in supply and pose environmental concerns.
Researchers are Princeton University have developed a novel route
towards synthesizing a family of cobalt phosphine dialkyl compounds that are
versatile catalysts for asymmetric olefin hydrogenation, and potentially for
transfer hydrogenation, hydroformylation, and olefin hydrosilylation
reactions. The catalysts have been
evaluated experimentally and proven to be highly active in a variety of
reactions. This new technology
utilize terrestrially abundant and inexpensive base metal cobalt and other
commercially available precursors for catalyst synthesis, and thus is
anticipated to reduce cost significantly in commercial applications by replacing
current iridium, rhodium, platinum, and ruthenium catalysts. Additionally, the modularity of this
system is an incredibly attractive aspect of the present invention allowing
catalyst evaluation by high throughput screening.
Applications
In
pharmaceutical, agrochemical, food science, and flavors and fragrances
industries
for:
·
Asymmetric
olefin hydrogenation
·
Transfer
hydrogenation
·
Hydroformylation
·
Olefin
hydrosilylation
Advantages
·
Low
cost
·
Low
toxicity
·
High
enantioselectivity
·
High
modularity
Faculty Inventor
Paul
Chirik
is the Edward S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University. Dr. Chirik received his
Ph.D. from The California Institute of Technology in 2000. Prior to his appointment at Princeton,
Professor Chirik was the Peter J.W. Debye Professor of Chemistry and Chemical
Biology at Cornell University. He is the recipient of several notable awards
including: the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, American Chemical Society, the
Bessel Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Camille
Dreyfus-Teacher Scholar, the Stephen and Margery Russell Distinguished Teaching
Award, the David and Lucile Packard Fellow in Science and Engineering, and the
NSF CAREER Award. He is also a
member of the Defense Science Study Group focused on technological solutions to
problems in national security.
Research in the Chirik group is at the intersection of the
traditional disciplines of organic and inorganic chemistry. The discovery of
sustainable methods in chemical synthesis is a unifying theme. One area of
long-standing interest is the discovery of new reactions for the
functionalization of atmospheric nitrogen. A second interest is base metal
catalysis and the elucidation of the electronic structure of redox-active
metal-ligand complexes with emphasis on the integration of spectroscopy and
theory. With these goals in mind, they study transition metal complexes from
across the periodic table and use state-of-the-art multinuclear NMR experiments,
X-ray diffraction techniques, isotopic labeling, Mössbauer and EPR spectroscopy
as well as modern DFT methods to establish the electronic and molecular
structures of the compounds and pre-catalysts they
prepare.