Jaiwook Park, Ph.D.

Professor
Department of Chemistry
Division of Molecular and Life Sciences
Organic Chemistry, Organometallic Chemistry

Profile |  Research Interests |  Selected Publications  |  Lab. Members

Profile

Research Interests

Dr. Park focuses his research interest on the syntheses and applications of novel organometallic compounds. Catalytic activities of the compounds for various organic transformations are the major concern for the applications. Catalytic redox reactions, particularly including transfer-hydrogenation reactions, are his research subjects.

Combination of enzymes and artificial catalysts for concerted one-pot reactions: Concerted catalytic reactions in cells are essential for life. Enzymes are doing the essential jobs for living creatures. A notable feature of the enzymatic reactions is the harmony for living activities. However, the concerted reactions by enzymes do not always satisfy human desires. In fact, nowadays, the compounds and materials required in industrial scale are provided mostly by the processes using artificial catalysts. Meanwhile, the enzymatic reactions involving the substrates and/or the products with stereogenic centers are highly stereoselective. It is hard for artificial catalysts to compete with enzymes in the stereoselectivity although artificial asymmetric catalysis has been developed to a considerable level. Thus, it is eagerly desirable to develop concerted catalytic reactions of enzymes and artificial catalysts for asymmetric transformation in industrial scale.

Dynamic kinetic resolution of alcohols catalyzed by lipases and organometallic racemization catalysts: Efficient asymmetric synthesis is essential to meet the increasing demand for enantiomerically pure compounds in pharmaceutical and agricultural industry. Asymmetric and catalytic transformations by chiral transition metal complexes or enzymes have been developed for the efficient preparation of enantiomerically pure compounds. However, kinetic resolution (KR) of racemic mixture is still the most common way to prepare enantiomerically pure compounds in industrial scales. The enzymatic processes will be strengthened by rapidly developing biotechnologies, including direct evolution and enzyme immobilization. However, the intrinsic drawback of KR is the theoretical maximum yield limited to only 50%, which requires the laborious separation of products from the remaining substrate. Thus, racemization catalysts, which perform in situ racemization of the remaining substrate during KR, enable to overcome the drawback of the classical KR. Thus, the efficient catalysts for the racemization of alcohols and amines are the research targets of Dr. Park.

Catalytic oxidation of alcohols: The oxidation of alcohols to carbonyl compounds is a fundamental transformation in organic synthesis. Thus, there have been considerable efforts to develop various methods and reagents for this transformation. Recently, great efforts have been focused on metal-catalyzed oxidations to meet efficiency as well as economical requirements. Although the efforts have introduced several notable catalytic systems, there is still a definite need for more convenient and efficient ones for selective alcohol oxidations. Now, catalytic dehydrogenation of alcohols, which does not require any oxidant, is being investigated.

Catalytic Activation of O₂ and H₂O: Photosynthesis is a fundamental process for living creatures. The process can be simply described as a combination the oxidation of water and the reduction of carbon dioxide, or as the transfer of electrons from water to carbon dioxide by the aids of sunlight and many biocatalysts. One of Dr. Park's research interests focuses on simple and efficient catalyst systems that can activate water and oxygen for organic redox reactions.

<Multi-step reactions proceed in a single reaction flask
by the concerted aid of organometallic catalysts and enzymes.>

Selected Publications

Mahn-Joo Kim, Yangsoo Ahn, and Jaiwook Park, "Dynamic Kinetic Resolutions and Asymmetric Transformations by Enzymes Coupled with Metal Catalysis," Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 2002, 13, 578-587.

Hyun Min Jung, Jun Ho Choi, Soon Ok Lee, Yu Hwan Kim, Jung Hye Park, and Jaiwook Park, "Facile Synthesis of (h5-Ph4C4COH)(CO)2RuCl and Catalytic Oxidation of Alcohols with Chloroform," Organometallics 2002, 21, 5674-5677.

Jun Ho Choi, Yu Hwan Kim, Se Hyun Nam, Seung Tae Shin, Mahn-Joo Kim, and Jaiwook Park, "Aminocyclopentadienyl Ruthenium Chloride: Catalytic Racemization and Dynamic Kinetic Resolution of Alcohols at Ambient Temperature," Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 2002, 41, 2373-2376.  

Jung Hye Park, Jeong Hwan Koh, and Jaiwook Park, "Reactions of (h5-Indenyl)Ru(PPh3)2Cl with CH2Cl2 and CHCl3: Formation of (h5-Indenyl)Ru(CH2PPh2)(C6H4)}(PPh3) and (h5-Indenyl)Ru(PPh3)(CO)Cl," Organometallics 2001, 20, 1892-1894.

Hyun Min Jeong, Jeong Hwan Koh, Mahn-Joo Kim, and Jaiwook Park, "Practical Ruthenium/Lipase-Catalyzed Asymmetric Transformations of Ketones and Enol Acetates to Chiral Acetates," Org. Lett. 2000, 2, 2487-2490.

Lab. Members

Division of Molecular & Life Sciences| POSTECH