Summary
This project will develop methods to control the selectivity of multifunctionalization reactions, which would enable production of complex valuable chemicals from simple inexpensive starting materials. Multifunctionalization reactions involve multiple bond-breaking and making steps in a single reaction and can be used to rapidly increase the molecular complexity, and value, of abundant hydrocarbon feedstocks. However, poor selectivity in these transformations often leads to an unusable mixture of products. The research team under Dr. Bruch will investigate how specifically designed substrates