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From Flat to Chiral: A unified approach to converting achiral aromatic compounds to optically active valuable building blocks

Final Report Summary - FLATOUT (From Flat to Chiral: A unified approach to converting achiral aromatic compounds to optically active valuable building blocks)

The preparation of enantiomerically pure organic compounds is of paramount importance to modern Chemistry. In this project, we have achieved this by an innovative combination of photochemistry and catalysis and by pioneering several new classes of transformations. In particular, we focused on the conversion of "flat", cheap 2D-molecules into highly-valued 3D-structures with full control of the handedness (or chirality) of the resulting products. This has resulted in a suite of novel methodologies that significantly enrich the arsenal of the synthetic chemist. Applications to the synthesis of important bioactive compounds such as Tamiflu or Fomannosin were also investigated.