Department of Chemistry Seminar - Chemoselective Aerobic Alcohol Oxidation by Nitroxyl Radical/Copper Cooperative Catalysis

Speaker: Professor Yusuke Sasano

Institution: Lecturer, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

Hosted By: Professor Hugh NAKAMURA

Abstract

The oxidation of alcohols into their corresponding carbonyl compounds is one of the most fundamental transformations in organic chemistry. Nevertheless, the direct oxidation of alcohols having unprotected amino groups to their corresponding amino carbonyl compounds often suffers from poor yield owing to either the non-productive or destructive interaction between an electronrich amino group and the oxidant, which reflects immature state-of-the-art of alcohol oxidation. Here, we disclose a highly chemoselective aerobic oxidation of unprotected amino alcohols featuring 2-azaadamantane N-oxyl (AZADO)/copper cooperative catalysis. In the presentation, if possible, anasymmetric aerobic oxidation of alcohols based on AZADO/copper catalysts will also be presented.

About the Speaker

Dr Yusuke Sasano studied at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tohoku University, where he obtained his B.S. degree in 2008 and his Ph.D. degree in 2014 under the supervision of Prof. Yoshiharu Iwabuchi. He was appointed a Research Instructor in Professor Iwabuchi’s laboratory at Tohoku University in 2012 and an Assistant Professor in the same laboratory in 2014. He worked as a Research Associate in Professor Ryan Shenvi’s laboratory at The Scripps Research Institute in 2014–2015. He was promoted to a Lecturer in Professor Iwabuchi’s laboratory at Tohoku University in 2020. His current research interest is the development of
selective oxidation using his original catalysts as a synthetic methodology. Dr Sasano has been awarded several prizes such as The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan Award for Young Scientists (2022), JISEDAI Symposium Lectureship Award (The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan, 2021), Shionogi Award in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan (The Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan, 2013), etc.