Dr. Zhihua Ma's project was the development of new synthetic methods for chiral beta-amino acids. He discovered highly diastereoselective addition of lithium enolate to N-tosyl amine, which could lead to the synthesis of Enantiomerically pure beta-aryl-beta-amino acids. Dr. Ma has joined Professor M. P. Sibi's group in University of North Dakota as a postdoctoral fellow.
Ph.D thesis: Asymmetric Synthesis of beta–Amino Acids
Publications
[1] Stereoselective Nucleophilic Addition of Chiral Lithium Enolates to (N-Tosyl)imines: Enantioselective Synthesis of b-Aryl-b-amino Acid Derivatives
Zhihua Ma, Yonghua Zhao, Nan Jiang, Xianglin Jin, Jianbo Wang
Tetrahedron Lett. 2002, 43, 3209-3212.
[2] Diastereoselective a-Alkylation of b-Amino Esters: Preparation of Novel
a-Substituted b-Amino Esters from a-Amino Acids
Zhihua Ma, Cong Liu, Yonghua Zhao, Wei Li, Jianbo Wang
Chin Chem Lett. 2002, 13, 721-724.
[3] Recent Development in Asymmetric Synthesis of b-Amino Acids (A review in Chinese)
Zhihua Ma, Yonghua Zhao and Jianbo Wang
Chin. J. Org. Chem. 2002, 22, 807-816.
[4] Catalytic Asymmetric [2,3]-Sigmatropic Rearrangement of Sulfur Ylides generated from Copper(I) Carbenoids and Allyl Sulfides
Xiaomei Zhang, Zhaohui Qu, Zhihua Ma, Weifeng Shi, Xianglin Jin and Jianbo Wang
J. Org. Chem. 2002, 67, 5621-5625.
[5] Investigation on the Transition Metal and Acid Catalyzed Reaction of b-(N-Tosyl)amino Diazo Carbonyl Compounds
Nan Jiang, Zhihua Ma, Zhaohui Qu, Xiaoyu Xing, Linfeng Xie and Jianbo Wang
J. Org Chem. 2003, 68, 893-900.
[6] Rh2(OAc)4-Mediated Diazo Decomposition of d-(N-Tosyl)amino-b-keto-a-diazo Carbonyl Compounds: An Novel Approach to Pyrrole Derivatives
Guisheng Deng, Nan Jiang, Zhihua Ma, Jianbo Wang
Synlett, 2002, 1913-1915.
[7] A Highly Stereoselective Addition of the Anion Derived from a-Diazoacetamide to Aromatic (N-Tosyl)imines
Yonghua Zhao, Zhihua Ma, Xiaomei Zhang, Yaping Zou, Xianglin Jin and Jianbo Wang
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2004, 43, 5977-5980.
