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Updated: Jun 30, 2026

Chemoselective Modification of Viral Surfaces via Bioorthogonal Click Chemistry
Published on: August 19, 2012
Mechanism-Inspired Chiral Binuclear Cu Catalysis for Click Chemistry: Highly Efficient Kinetic Resolution to
Zekai Fang1, Tianmei Nie1, Yu Lan1
1State Key Laboratory of Organometallic Chemistry and Shanghai-Hongkong Joint Laboratory in Chemical Synthesis, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 345 Lingling Road, Shanghai 200032, China.
Abstract:
Copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) is a cornerstone reaction in modern chemistry. Although binuclear catalytic mechanisms have been widely proposed and certain binuclear complexes exhibit good activity, asymmetric CuAAC still relies on the in situ assembly of copper salts with chiral ligands. Herein, guided by the postulated reaction mechanism, we employ a preassembled chiral binuclear copper catalyst with a well-defined chiral pocket to achieve efficient kinetic resolution of alkyne-functionalized azlactones with azides. This catalyst contains two copper(I) ions within a single chiral ligand framework, providing a rigid planar scaffold, stable coordination geometry, and a semicircular chiral cavity. Both triazole products and recovered azlactones are obtained in high enantiopurity and can be rapidly converted into chiral α-quaternary amino acid derivatives. This study establishes chiral binuclear copper complexes as an effective platform for enantioselective CuAAC.
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