In the course of the project the catalytic, asymmetric ring-opening of oxetanes should be investigated. A chiral
metal complex activates both the substrate and the incoming nucleophile, while transforming the chiral information.
To find the optimal choice of catalyst a thorough ligand and metal screening will be necessary. Probably a
combination of two different metals would be optimal for the activation of the substrate and the nucleophile
delivery. The products of the reaction would be highly interesting chiral building blocks, which should find
application in natural product synthesis, The asymmetric ring-opening of prochiral 3,3-disubstituted oxetanes would
open a new elegant, catalytic and atom-economic route to substrates with a quarternary, stereogenic centre, which
are not easily available at present.