Non Natural Aromatic Amino Acids Applications in cage-construction, metal ion coordination and asymmetric catalysis
Aromatic non-natural amino acids, the outstanding feature of which was the presence of several arms, were synthesised and their properties investigated. The amino acids were synthesised following a standard procedure starting with a Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons or a Heck reaction, which provided didehydroamino acids. Catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation produced the enantiopure amino acid precursors. The