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43905-G1
Phosphoranyl Radical-Mediated Deoxygenative Transformation of Carbonyl Groups

Liming Zhang, University of Nevada (Reno)

In the past year, this award has provided salary support for my first postdoc, Dr. Shaozhong Wang and for me to work on Au chemistry, especially Au-catalyzed tandem reactions of propargylic esters. In addition, this award was used to pay for chemical expenses.

With the help of this generous award, the PI and coworkers have developed a series of highly useful synthetic methods, including efficient synthesis of enones, alkenyl enol esters, alpha-iodoenones, and discovered novel reactivities of Au catalysis, including the nucleophilicity of alkenylaurates and the formal formation of alpha-carbene gold carbenoid from Au activation of alkynes. A total of 5 articles were published including one communication to the Journal of the American Chemical Society and another one to Angewandte Chemie.

This award enables us to take on important topics in contemporary organic chemistry without limitation to the original proposal and help generate substantial amount of preliminary data for grant application to NSF and NIH. Two proposals have been submitted to NSF and NIH, respectively. Although the outcome of those proposals are still pending, this award has substantially helped the takeoff of my career as a junior faculty. Moreover, my postdoc and students have benefited from this award as well. With the publications, they are embracing bright futures in chemistry.

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