1) Dual Catalysis & Asymmetric Synthesis: Our research is mainly focused on catalysis to develop new reaction methods. To this end, we are interested to study both transition metal catalysis and organo-catalysis to achieve new reactions in both asymmetric and racemic form. Besides mono catalysis, multi catalysis (dual catalysis) is another major topic in our laboratory. Initially we are working on dual catalysis by merging Lewis acid catalysis (to generate electrophiles) with Cu- or amine catalysis (to generate nucleophiles). Chiral ligands such as N-heterocyclic carbenes, Box, pyBox and phosphines will be used along with a suitable Cu-salt to achieve enantioselectivity. With the success of these methodologies, valuable precursors can be synthesized in a very efficient way.
2) Asymmetric Synthesis: Apart from the above mentioned asymmetric catalysis, auxiliary based asymmetric synthesis is another topic in our laboratory. Here sulfinyl imines are our auxiliary based chiral electrophiles. Thus highly useful structurally diverse chiral amines will be prepared in comparatively short reaction sequences by designing some attractive nucleophiles. Chiral amines are key structural motif and wide spread in many synthetic drugs, natural products and medicinally important molecules. We are also working on the total synthesis of few selective class of bio-active natural products by designing suitable methodologies based on N-sulfinyl imines
3) C-H-Bond Functionalization: In the myriad of transitional metal catalyzed reactions, C-H bond functionalizations is currently one of the frontier fields in the organic synthesis. A rapid development in this topic has been achieved during last few years and many powerful synthetic methods have been reported in the literature. Being very ubiquitous in most of the organic molecules, selective C-H bond functionalization is highly important as that can lead to the access of the functionalized compounds directly from the readily available precursors and hence save both cost as well as time.
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Asymmetric 1,2-Migration on Vicinal Tetrasubstituted Stereocenters Constructed from -Keto Imines by Karan G., Sahu S. , Metya A. , Maji M. S. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 63 05212- (2024)
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Annulative -Extension by Cp*Co(III)-Catalyzed Ketone-Directed peri-Annulation: An Approach to Access Fused Arenes by Bhattacharyya A., Sk M. R., Sen S. , Kundu S. , Maji M. S. Organic Letters 25 8622-8627 (2023)
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Construction of C2-Indolyl-Quaternary Centers by Branch-Selective Allylation: Enabling Concise Total Aynthesis of (±)-Mersicarpine Alkaloid by Ghosh M., Sahu S. , Saha S. , Maji M. S. Chemical Science 15 1789-1795 (2024)
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Annulative -Extension by Rh(III)-Catalyzed Ketone-Directed C H Activation: Rapid Access to Pyrenes and Related PAHs by Sk M. R., Bhattacharyya A. , Saha S. , Brahma A. , Maji M. S. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 62 e2023052- (2023)
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Late-Stage Halogenation of Peptides, Drugs and (Hetero)aromatics with a Nucleophilic Hydrazide Catalyst by Mondal H., Patra S. , Saha S. , Nayak T. , Sengupta U. , Maji M. S. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 62 12597- (2023)
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An expeditious route to sterically encumbered nonproteinogenic -amino acid precursors using allylboronic acids by Sahu S., Karan G., Roy L., Maji M.S. Chemical Science 13 2355-2362 (2022)
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Stereodivergent Total Synthesis of Hapalindoles, Fischerindoles, Hapalonamide H and Ambiguine H Alkaloids by Developing a Biomimetic, Redox-Neutral, Cascade Prins-Type Cyclization by Sahu S., Das B. , Maji M. S. Organic Letters 20 6485-6489 (2018)
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Weakly Coordinating Ketone-Directed Cp*Co(III)- and Cp*Rh(III)-Catalyzed C H Amidation of Arenes: A Route to Acridone Alkaloids by Bera S. S., Sk M. R., Maji M. S. Chemistry - A European Journal 25 1806-1811 (2019)
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Solution-Phase Late-Stage Chemoselective Photocatalytic Removal of Sulfonyl and Phenacyl Groups in Peptides by Kundu S., Maji M.S. Chemistry - A European Journal - (2024)
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Development of Carbazole-Cored Organo-Photocatalyst for Visible Light-Driven Reductive Pinacol/Imino-Pinacol Coupling by Kundu S., Roy L., Maji M.S. Organic Letters 24 9001-9006 (2022)
Principal Investigator
- Allyl Boronic Acid Enabled Generation of Elusive C2-Indolyl-All Carbon Quaternary Centre: A Lego Building Block for the Total Synthesis of Indole Based Alkaloids Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)
- Allyl Boronic Acid Enabled Generation of Elusive C2-Indolyl-All Carbon Quaternary Centre: A Lego Building Block for the Total Synthesis of Indole Based Alkaloids Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF)
- Design, Synthesis and Application of Chiral Alkoxyamide Phase Transfer Catalysts Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF)
- Design, Synthesis and Application of Chiral Alkoxyamide Phase-Transfer Catalysts Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)
- Travel Grant Received for Merck Young Scientist Award for Season 2 MERCK LIFE SCIENCE PRIVATE LIMITED
Ph. D. Students
Abhisek Metya
Area of Research: Catalysis and Organic Synthesis
Aship Mollah
Area of Research: Organic Synthesis
Samrat Dutta
Area of Research: Organic Synthesis
Sangram Samanta
Area of Research: Development of synthetic methods
Sharmila Das
Area of Research: Organic Synthesis
Soumitra Majee
Area of Research: Catalysis and Organic Synthesis
Subham Kundu
Area of Research: Organic Chemistry
Subimal Patra
Area of Research: Organic Synthesis
Susanta Bhunia
Area of Research: Catalysis and Organic Synthesis
Uday Ghosh
Area of Research: Organic Synthesis
