Organic Synthesis and Catalysis

I. Organocatalysis with phosphines : We routinely pursue metal-free chemistry with nucleophilic trivalent organophosphines. Some key contributions to this area include the development of asymmetric intramolecular Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction and its variants, phosphine-promoted reductive- and vinylogous aldol reactions, phosphine-catalyzed intramolecular hydroalkylation, and hydroacylation chemistry, etc.

II. Cascade transformations with sulphur ylides : Sulfur ylides are traditionally employed to synthesize cyclopropanes, epoxides, and aziridines from the respective olefins, carbonyls, and imines. We made a serendipitous entry into this field and articulated several one-pot cascade transformations employing sulfur ylides as reagents that provided facile access to unprecedented cyclopropanoids.