Topochemical Ene-Azide Cycloaddition Reaction

Topochemical reactions, the reaction between pre-organized reacting motifs in the crystal lattice, are attractive as they do not require solvents, catalysts and other special reaction conditions for the reaction, and provide products in pure form. Prof. Sureshan and his group have employed thermal Topochemical Azide–Alkyne Cycloaddition (TAAC) reaction to synthesize various biopolymer mimics. They have exploited hydrogen bonding for the pre-organization of monomers molecules in an arrangement suitable for their topochemical polymerization reaction. Lattice controlled polymerization reaction of such pre-organized monomers gave various biopolymer mimics. Recently, they have developed Topochemical Ene-Azide Cycloaddition (TEAC) reaction for the synthesis triazoline linked polymers. This novel methodology offers regiospecific and stereospecific synthesis of triazolines in the crystal and their facile denitrogenation to aziridines. In this talk, the design and execution of such topochemical syntheses will be discussed.