Periodic Reporting for period 4 - ELICOS (Enantioselective Light-induced Catalysis for Organic Synthesis)
Reporting period: 2020-07-01 to 2020-12-31
Given the continuing success that enantioselective catalysis has encountered over the last few decades, it is striking that it has – until very recently – not played a role in the photochemical synthesis of chiral molecules. The fact, that photochemistry lags behind the development in enantioselective catalysis, is critical since there is a large number of biologically relevant molecular scaffolds that are only accessible by photochemical but not by thermal reactions. Major reasons for this lack in progress towards enantioselective light-induced catalysis are intrinsic difficulties encountered when designing potential catalysts for such a process. Efficient photochemical reactions have relatively low activation barriers and product formation is rapid while many thermal reactions have significant activation barriers and proceed with very low reaction rates even at elevated temperature. The goal of the ELICOS (Enantioselective Light-Induced Catalysis for Organic Synthesis) project was to develop catalytic methods that would allow for the enantioselective synthesis of a variety of versatile compound classes by light-induced reactions. It was meant to address the intrinsic challenge of modulating excited state reactivity and to advance the field by new concepts and mechanistic insights.
* For a complete list of ELICOS publications, please see: https://www.ch.nat.tum.de/en/oc1/research/elicos/
Science-based Impact: It has been shown in several examples that previously known racemic photochemical reactions can be modified to prepare enantiopure compounds. In addition, new catalytic photochemical reactions have been discovered which now wait to be exploited in an enantioselective fashion. The area of photochemistry receives increasing interest form the scientific community which in part is due to the activities of the project.
Socio-economic Impact: The power of photochemical reactions rests on the fact that they do not require any external energy but the energy of photons. They are in this regard optimal transformations which allow to harvest the energy of solar photons and to convert it into unique structures. The impact of the project on society rests on the efficient use of energy and on the construction of molecular structures which promise applications in medicine and technology.