Research Abstract

Titanium, the second most abundant transition metal in the Earth's crust, offers advantages such as non-toxicity, environmental friendliness, and biocompatibility, making it an economical and sustainable catalytic resource. However, many fine chemical synthesis reactions tend to favor late transition metals, often overlooking the cost-effective early transition metal titanium. Titanium’s partially filled d-orbitals impart it with variable oxidation states and the ability to easily form complex coordination compounds. These characteristics, while advantageous, make it challenging to harness titanium in catalytic asymmetric radical chemistry.

Since our research group's establishment in late 2019, we have focused on addressing challenges in the field of asymmetric titanium radical catalysis. We have synthesized a range of mononuclear and dinuclear (salen)titanium radical catalysts, developed novel enantioselective radical reactions, and transformed readily available racemic chemicals into various enantioenriched, synthetically valuable motifs. Their applications in the synthesis of chiral pharmaceuticals have also been investigated.

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