Professor Alexander Grenning
Chemistry
University of Florida
Developing a versatile contrathermal Cope rearrangement platform for enantioselective synthesis
The Cope Rearrangement is a classic transformation of value to modern organic synthesis. Certain substrates classes have been well developed due to their ready availability and generally favorable energetic profiles. Conversely, 3,3-dicyano-1,5- dienes have been overlooked. We have been exploring 3,3-dicyano-1,5-dienes and have uncovered strategies to improve their energetic profiles in general ways that impact their applicability to complex molecule synthesis. We have also uncovered strategies for controlling absolute stereochemistry for this class of Cope substrate. This seminar will focus on how the marriage of fundamental and applied research has led to a diversifiable platform for Cope rearrangement-centered method development, (enantioselective) catalysis, target and analog synthesis, and other direct and tangentially related studies.
