Substituted benzophenone synthesis for biological and catalytic applications

The benzophenone (BP) synthon has been shown to be a powerful functionality for an array of applications in biology and catalysis, owing to its unique biaryl twist and diradicaloid triplet state upon photo-­‐excitation. In this work, synthesis of the BP synthon and derivatives will be investigated as they could be potential new biological binding moieties and also photocatalytic motifs. The natural product (−) ­‐Balanol, is a potent Protein Kinase C (PKC) inhibitor that contains the BP synthon. Synthesis of substituted BPs will be examined in order to find new motifs for probing the active site of PKC with enhanced isozyme specificity. Likewise, following previous work involving a chiral trifunctional organocatalyst synthesis of a catalyst with a BP motif will be investigated for its future catalytic applications.