Catalytic Substrate- and Site-Selective Transesterification
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Updated: Oct 31, 2026

Development of Heterogeneous Enantioselective Catalysts using Chiral Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs)
Published on: January 17, 2020
Chengyi Shan1, King Hung Nigel Tang1,2, Kazumasa Kon1
1Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, B2-3(611), Furo-cho, Chikusa, Nagoya464-8603, Japan.
Abstract:
Substrate- and site-selective esterification is a powerful synthetic tool to reduce the number of steps required for the synthesis of complex molecules. To address the challenges associated with achieving such selectivity, a variety of strategies have been developed. However, these methods generally require highly reactive acylating reagents. We have developed the first catalytic process for a substrate- and site-selective transesterification using nonactivated esters as acylating reagents. The precisely engineered cavity surrounding the central metal in the sodium- and magnesium-based catalysts enables efficient steric discrimination between competing reaction sites.
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