Abstract

The abstract is the summary of three different projects all centered around the generalidea of catalysis which is the general theme of research in the Michaelis laboratory. The firstproject focuses on development of a new heterogeneous catalyst for selective catalysis. In theMichaelis lab, we were interested in the potential of nanoparticle catalysts for regioselectivetransformations. We showed that polymer supported ruthenium nanoparticles performed as areliable catalyst for regioselective reduction of azide to amine. In our study of regioselectivereduction of multiple azide containing substrates, we observed that in presence of ourruthenium nanoparticle catalysts, the least sterically hindered azide group reduced to aminefunctional group. The results were complementary to the conventional methods that employtriphenyl phosphine (Staudinger reaction) as the reductant and target the most electronicallyactive azide group.In the second project, we were looking to develop a new class of hetero-bimetallicNickel-Titanium complexes as an efficient catalyst for organic transformations. We designedand synthesized numerous bidentate ligands including NHC-Phosphine ligand. Our kineticstudies on the Suzuki cross coupling of allylic alcohols and phenyl boronic esters showed thatthe bidentate nature of the ligand was necessary for the success of the catalytic process. Theligand was proved to stabilize the catalyst in the solution by increasing the lifetime of thenickel (0) in the reaction medium. We also discovered a new cooperative titanium-nickelsystem for mild allylic amination of allyl alcohols. The system also represents an idealcatalyst for tandem cyclization amination process.In the Michaelis lab, we were also interested to explore the ability of bimetalliccomplexes in C-H functionalization process. Our efforts in this project led to the discovery ofnew Pallladium dimer complexes with two palladium centers in oxidation state of (I). Thecatalyst showed unique reactivity in C-C bond activation/functionalization. We have alsodiscovered that in presence of catalytic amount of triflic acid and stoichiometric amount ofphenyl boronic acid, cinnamyl alcohol undergoes a boron template dimerization/cyclization.The reaction represents a great synthetic pathway for the synthsis of bis homoallylic alcohols.

Degree

PhD

College and Department

Physical and Mathematical Sciences; Chemistry and Biochemistry

Date Submitted

2019-03-01

Document Type

Dissertation

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd10571

Keywords

Heterogeneous Catalysis, Nanoparticles, Polymer, Regioselective, Aminoglycoside, Ruthenium

Language

english

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