Joseph Song Rose Hills
Elucidating Pyridine-Boryl Radical Catalysis via Data Science
Pyridine-boryl radicals have emerged as efficient catalysts for cycloaddition and coupling reactions relevant in pharmaceutical synthesis. Unlike conventional organometallic systems, pyridine-boryl radical catalysts are metal-free, cost-effective, and completely atom economical. Despite this synthetic utility, the reactivity governing pyridine-boryl radical catalysis is poorly understood. This project aims to not only provide a mechanistic understanding of these reactions, but also establish intuitive catalyst design principles that can be readily employed to optimize known transformations or develop new ones. A data science-guided approach is therefore used to investigate the impact of catalyst structure on reactivity. Molecular descriptors, numerical representations of a catalyst’s physicochemical features, will be calculated and their correlations with reaction outcomes such as diastereomeric ratio and yield will be experimentally determined. After the catalyst features governing reactivity are identified, a mechanistic hypothesis will be proposed and applied to optimize known transformations in literature.
Message To Sponsor
Because of your support, I am able to dedicate my summer to explore an intersection of synthetic and computational chemistry that deeply interests me. Having come from a background with little opportunity to do science, having the chance to do this is still unbelievable to me. I cannot thank you enough!