October 18, 2017
Keio University
A research group led by Professor Fumitoshi Kakiuchi of the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, has successfully developed a direct and highly selective method for introducing functional groups into various aromatic compounds using carbon-hydrogen bonds, employing a complex catalyst derived from inexpensive and abundant iron. The development of catalytic functionalization reactions using carbon-hydrogen bonds is gaining attention as an organic synthesis method for a sustainable society and is currently one of the most researched fields globally. These reactions almost always use expensive precious metal elements or rare metals as catalysts. To make these catalytic reactions more useful, there is an urgent need to develop synthesis methods that use inexpensive and abundant iron as a catalyst. In this study, using an iron-phosphine complex as a catalyst made it possible to introduce vinyl ethers linearly into aromatic rings, something that could not be achieved with known reaction systems. Research on the functionalization of carbon-hydrogen bonds using expensive metals as catalysts has been ongoing for over 20 years, and this breakthrough is expected to change the direction of the field.
The results of this research were published in the "Journal of the American Chemical Society" (JACS) on October 17, 2017 (local time).
Please see below for the full press release.