Yuanning Feng

Template-Directed Stereoselective Autocatalysis

Classic stereoselective reactions require chiral ligands or the introduction of a chiral center. Autocatalytic reactions, however, produce stereoisomerically enriched products from achiral precursors. Exploring the origin of chiral amplification can be used for asymmetric synthesis. Introducing recognition sites to reactants can bring templation to asymmetric bond formation which will boost the stereoselectivity of desired products. Our project also discovers the origin of homochirality in biomolecules and the chiral amplification in the prebiotic synthesis.

Functional Molecular Fluorescent Dyes

Push–pull fluorescent dyes- which feature electron donating (D) substituents connected to electron accepting (A) substituents- have been investigated as environmentally sensitive fluorophores. The design and synthesis of fluorescent organic compounds containing push–pull chromophores have emerged as an active area of research over the past two decades as a result of their potential applications in the fields of photovoltaics, non-linear optics, organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), fluorescent sensors, and bioimaging. Our project investigates the design and synthesis of new building blocks of fluorescent dyes which leads to dynamic properties based on the supramolecular interactions. The dyes are useful to explore the fundamental principles of intermolecular and intramolecular electron transfer with the collaboration with optical physicists and theoretical chemists.