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The major theme of research in the group of Prof. Petri Pihko is to establish novel and efficient strategies for chemical synthesis with the help of catalytic transformations, especially organocatalysis, enzymatic catalysis, and oxidative catalysis. We are developing ready-to-use catalytic tools for synthesis as well as applying them to construct biologically and structurally interesting natural products and industrially relevant targets. We pay special attention not only to the generality and wide scope of the transformations, but also to understanding the underlying mechanistic and structural basis of the methodology.

Research Topics and Research Highlights 

• Total synthesis of natural products
• Organocatalysis
• Oxidations and cross-dehydrogenations
• Molecular design and redox flow batteries
• Physical organic chemistry

Total Synthesis of Natural Products

Methods developed in chemical synthesis need to be constantly validated and calibrated in challenging settings. The challenging, exquisite architectures of natural products provide us with constant benchmarks to gauge the applicability and efficacy of the current methods, and they inspire us to find more efficient and more creative solutions to problems in synthetic methods.

We have several ongoing total synthesis programs, some of which are shown below.

Anion-Responsive Catalysts

We are working towards catalysts modulated by small anions. An example of these catalysts is shown below (see , ).

Oxidations and Cross-dehydrogenative Couplings

We study cross-dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) reactions enabling the rapid construction of highly complex molecular scaffolds. For an example, see . New reactions based on the CDC blueprint are explored in the Research Council of Finland-funded project (with Dr. Anton Nechaev). 

Collaboration

We collaborate with several groups within JYU and also internationally. Our collaborators include  (Hungarian Academy of Sciences - computational chemistry),   (University of Oulu - structural enzymology and use of enzymes in synthesis), Prof. Kari Rissanen (Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥ - structural characterization and X-ray crystallography), Prof. Karoliina Honkala (Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥ - computational heterogeneous catalysis), Prof. Kaisa Helttunen and Prof. Gerrit Groenhof (anion-modulated catalysis). In the development of next-generation flow batteries, we collaborate with the group of (University of Turku) and (computational chemistry and AI). 

News and vacancies

13.1.2025 Welcome Sanna, working towards her Ph.D. in the group in the Doctoral Education Pilot under the

19.7.2024 Congrats to Veera for her first publication on the catalysis of the venerable

10.7.2024 Congrats to Maxime (+ Prachi and Anton) on AZON3, now in

10.4.2024 Our strategic paper on the synthesis of the core of has been accepted for publication in JOC! Congratulations Prachi, Rajanish and Aino! 

2.3.2024 Congratulations to Anton for his metal-free silylation, now in

Join us!

If you are interested in joining the group as a postdoctoral researcher or as an exchange student, please contact Prof. Pihko directly (Petri.Pihko[at]jyu.fi).

Current Funding

• Academy of Finland
• Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥ and the NanoScience Center (NSC)
• CIMANET network via the Ministry of Education

• Our FlowXAI project has received funding from the European Union – NextGenerationEU instrument and is funded by the Academy of Finland under grant number #348328.