Research

The Alvarez Pari Lab at the University of Virginia (UVA) will identify/address outstanding challenges in catalysis by capitalizing on the intrinsic redox reactivity of main group elements. Our overarching goal is to develop innovative synthetic transformations with implications in both academia and industry using readily available feedstock chemicals. We will merge organic synthesis, organometallic catalysis and fundamental principles of photochemistry and electrochemistry towards sustainable catalysis and reaction discovery for the efficient synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant organic molecules. Our group will redesign catalytic systems and, in parallel, discover new concepts in catalysis within a research area so far devoted only to transition metals such as palladium. In particular, we are interested in bridging the realm of fundamental organometallic main group chemistry with the field of organic synthesis to advance sustainable catalysis.

We will also exploit innovative photochemical strategies for the generation of unusual reactive species and study the electronic and photophysical structures that give way to productive reactivity and selectivity. Ultimately, electrochemistry will be merged with main group chemistry to enable a general platform for cross-coupling reactions between building blocks of high abundance and structural diversity.

Fields of Interest

• Organic Synthesis
• Organometallic Chemistry
• Catalysis
• Photochemistry and Organic Electrosynthesis

Representative Publications

*Alvarez, E. M.; Li, J.; *Malapit, C. A. A General Hydrotrifluoromethylation of Unactivated Olefins Enabled by Voltage-Gated Electrosynthesis. Manuscript accepted in Angewandte Chemie. *Corresponding author. DOI: 10.1002/anie.202415218.

Alvarez, E. M.; Stewart, G.; Ullah, M.; Lalisse, R.; Gutierrez O.; Malapit, C. A. Site-selective Electrochemical Aromatic C–H Amination. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146, 3591-3597. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c11506.

Alvarez, E. M.; Bai, Z.; Pandit, S.; Frank, N.; Torkowski, L.; Ritter, T. Bicyclopentylation for O-, N-, and C- Functionalization with a Storable Thianthrenium-based Reagent. Nat. Synth. 2023, 2, 548–556. DOI: 10.1038/s44160-023-00277-8.

Alvarez, E. M.; Karl, T; Berger, F; Ritter, T. Late-Stage Heteroarylation of Heteroarylsulfonium salts activated by α-Amino Alkyl Radicals. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 13609-13613. DOI: 10.1002/anie.202103085.

Alvarez, E. M.; Plutschack, M. B.; Berger, F.; Ritter, T. Site-Selective C-H Functionalization-Sulfination Sequence to access Sulfonamides, Org. Lett. 2020, 22, 4593-4596. DOI: 10.1021/acs.orglett.0c00982.