Fossil resources are running out more and more. These must be replaced by renew­able raw materi­als as quickly as possi­ble. There­fore, the goal of this PhD project, under the direc­tion of Hector Fellow A. Stephen K. Hashmi, is the ratio­nal devel­op­ment of several sustain­able, waste minimized and environ­men­tally friendly methods for the conver­sion of furan deriv­a­tives with olefins in [4+2]-cycloadditions, photo­catal­ysed reactions of furan deriv­a­tives with diazo­nium salts as well as novel Murai reactions.

Fossil resources are increas­ingly depleted. They have to be replaced as quickly as possi­ble by renew­able raw materi­als, so that a slow transi­tion to a new and modern produc­tion of „platform chemi­cals“ can take place.

The project super­vised by Hector Fellow A. Stephen K. Hashmi aims on the ratio­nal devel­op­ment of sustain­able, waste-minimized and environ­men­tally friendly conver­sions of furan-deriv­a­tives with olefins. Reaction condi­tions have to be found, which favor the [4+2]-cycloaddition of the start­ing materi­als to the respec­tive 7‑oxanobornene derivatives.

Based on previ­ous work in the Hashmi group with diazo­nium salts, the conver­sion of furan deriv­a­tives are inves­ti­gated. In this case gold-catalyzed photore­ac­tions achieve activa­tion and induce a new bond forma­tion. Further­more, reaction condi­tions have to be found which enable Murai reactions with yet unreac­tive furfural or furan deriv­a­tives at their C3-positions. This reaction type has so far only been carried out with ketones as a direct­ing group. In the course of this Ph.D. project, it will be inves­ti­gated whether aldehy­des or even other functional groups are capable of C‑C bond forma­tion at the C3 position. With these reactions, in addition with some further ideas, chemi­cals derived from non-nutri­tion­ally relevant raw materi­als can be used to create value. With the help of atom-econom­i­cal and with regard to the princi­ples of „green chemistry“ fulfill­ing synthe­ses, build­ing blocks for natural or medic­i­nal products are to be developed.