Project Description

The development of chemical transformations using catalysis is a very powerful and efficient approach towards greener organic synthesis. The fruitful areas of transition-metal catalysis and organocatalysis have undoubtedly had a great impact on organic chemistry. Despite the powerful platform these two fields embody, there remain limitations and room for novelty in each. Thus, further efforts are needed in order to develop them into impeccable tools. One way of broadening their field of application is through the employment of multicatalysis strategies, in which the organic and transition-metal catalysts are combined. Together they can display different activation modes, allowing for new reactivities not accessible through the use of a single catalyst. By cooperatively acting in conjunction, both fields can profit from one another and jointly strengthen their capacity. In this context, cooperative catalysis describes the concept of two different catalysts working together synergistically without interfering with one another but rather by simultaneously activating two different reactive species. The advantages of such domino reactions include important factors such as atom economy, reduction of synthetic operations, and minimization of solvents and waste. This interdisciplinary concept opens whole new areas and enables innovative and challenging chemical transformations that could not be promoted by either catalyst alone.