Hydantoins are important heterocyclic moieties that are found in a number of natural products and pharmaceutically important compounds. We are interested in developing improved syntheses of hydantoins. Recently, we have reported a one-pot gallium(III) triflate-catalysed synthesis of hydantoins from aldehydes and ketones (shown below). This reaction has a good scope and can be conducted in a number of organic solvents.

Future research will focus on improving this reaction and applying the methodology to the synthesis of related heterocycles.