La première partie de ce travail est consacrée à l'étude et à l'extension de la réaction de Devasia. Un nombre important de structures d'imidazolinones-5 insaturées-4, non accessibles directement par d'autres voies est ainsi réalisé. Le mécanisme de cette réaction et sa catalyse sont étudiés. Les structures des produits sont confirmées par les méthodes spectrométriques et analytiques habituelles. La stéréochimie des composés est déterminée en particulier par R.M.N.1H et 13C. La réactivité des molécules vis-à-vis de plusieurs réactifs est abordée. Au second chapitre nous décrivons une nouvelle voie d'accès à des delta-2-imidazolines polysubstituées et fonctionnalisées originales. La réaction est appliquée aux composés alpha-bromés alpha, bêta-insaturés possédant une fonction carbonylée ou nitrile. L'étude de cette réaction nous a permis de mettre en évidence un mécanisme particulier présentant des intermédiaires non classiques. La structure tridimensionnelle des molécules est déterminée par R.M.N.1H, 13C, dipolmétrie, CNDO-2 et cristallographie. La troisième et dernière partie traite de l'application de la réaction précédente, étendue au cas des amidines non substituées. Elle constitue dans ce cas une nouvelle voie d'accès aux (3H) pyrimidinones-4-disubstituées-2,6. Les structures moléculaires sont déterminées par les méthodes spectroscopiques et analytiques courantes. La réactivité des molécules est alors étudiée vis-à-vis de plusieurs réactifs. En particulier le réarrangement de type Dimroth concernant les (N-éthoxyméthylène et N-formylidène hydrazino)-4 (3H) pyrimidines est abordé et discuté.

Gegenstand der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die UV/Vis-spektroskopische Bestimmung der Kamlet-Taft-Polaritätsparameter von strukturell unterschiedlichen Ionischen Flüssigkeiten (ILs), mit Hilfe von spezifischen solvatochromen Sondenmolekülen. Dabei wurden der Einfluss des Anions und Kations auf die Polarität, sowie die Stärke der Wechselwirkung zwischen beiden Ionen untersucht. Es konnte für Ionischen Flüssigkeiten mit dem 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazoliumkation eine 1H-NMR-spektroskopische Methode zur Ermittlung der Polaritätsparameter entwickelt werden. Diese bietet den Vorteil, dass sie auch bei farbigen, hydrolyseempfindlichen oder höher schmelzenden ILs eingesetzt werden kann, wenn die Anwendung solvatochromer Sondenmoleküle nicht möglich ist. Ein weiteres Augenmerk lag auf der Untersuchung der Wechselwirkung zwischen den ILs und silikatischen Oberflächen. Neben der Studie der anionenvermittelten starken Physisorption von 1-Methylimidazoliumchlorid an Aerosil®300 konnte auch eine neuartige Methode zur gezielten Chemisorption von Imidazolium- und Phosphoniumkationen an Siliziumdioxidoberflächen entwickelt werden. Dabei wurden verschieden Carbene und Ylide als basische IL-typische Kationenprecursoren eingesetzt. Die Analyse der erhaltenen Materialien erfolgte mit Hilfe verschiedener Methoden der Festkörper-NMR-Spektroskopie.

Álcoois primários sulfatados de cadeia longa, usualmente na forma de sais de sódio, são tensoativos de grande interesse comercial utilizados em diversas formulações de higiene pessoal e limpeza doméstica. Eles são produzidos comercialmente através da reação de álcoois etoxilados com trióxido de enxofre seguida de imediata neutralização com hidróxido de sódio. O produto formado é uma solução neutra de álcool primário etoxilado sulfatado em água. Sabe-se que a armazenagem desse produto por longos períodos de tempo em temperaturas elevadas pode levar à hidrólise completa, mas, em condições normais de uso e temperatura ambiente é esperado que o produto seja resistente à hidrólise. No entanto observou-se que algumas amostras comerciais de lauril éter sulfato de sódio que foram estocadas por diferentes períodos de tempo em frascos fechados à temperatura ambiente sofreram hidrólise em intervalos de tempo relativamente curtos. Isso leva à hipótese de que o comportamento de hidrólise seria influenciado por outras variáveis além da temperatura e do tempo de estocagem. O presente trabalho consistiu em identificar as variáveis de maior impacto na reação de hidrólise por meio de experimentos planejados. O teor de ativos foi acompanhado ao longo da reação para avaliar o efeito da presença de eletrólitos, de material insulfatado, em diferentes temperaturas, variando-se o pH inicial por meio da adição de ácido clorídrico. O comportamento da reação de hidrólise observado foi compatível com aquele descrito na literatura para o dodecil sulfato de sódio. A hidrólise apresentou-se como sendo autocatalítica, com a aceleração da taxa de reação provavelmente causada pela presença de íons hidrogênio liberados na reação. Foi possível identificar que as variáveis de maior efeito na reação foram: pH inicial, o teor de cloreto de sódio e a temperatura. O modelo de troca iônica em pseudo-fase foi utilizado para o tratamento dos resultados experimentais e mostrou-se adequado tendo sido, portanto, utilizado para prever o comportamento de estabilidade do produto à temperatura ambiente e nas condições em que o produto é normalmente comercializado. Um modelo empírico de redes neurais foi desenvolvido com sucesso para prever o comportamento do pH ao longo do tempo para as condições estudadas. / Long-chain primary alkyl sulfuric acids, usually as their sodium salts, are important commercial surfactants used in a large number of household and personal care formulations. They are commercially produced by treatment of mixtures of ethoxylated fatty alcohols with sulfur trioxide followed by immediate neutralization with sodium hydroxide, a neutral aqueous mixture of sodium primary alkyl ether sulfate is obtained. It is known that prolonged storage of the material at elevated temperature can lead to complete hydrolysis but under normal use and typical environmental conditions the product is expected to be resistant to hydrolysis. In spite of that it has been observed that some commercial samples of sodium lauryl ether sulfate stored for different periods of time in sealed containers at room temperature have undergone hydrolysis in a relatively short period of time which leads to the hypothesis that the hydrolysis behavior would be strongly influenced by variables other than temperature and storage time. The present work consisted of identifying the process variables with the most significant effect on the acid hydrolysis by using experimental design. The rate of hydrolysis has been followed acidimetrically to evaluate the effect of electrolytes as well as the concentration of unsulfated matter at different temperatures, over a wide initial pH range, under the presence of added hydrochloric acid. The pattern of kinetic behaviour observed was broadly the same as previously described for the sodium dodecyl sulfate. The hydrolysis presented the characteristic autocatalytic form, the catalysis presumably arising from the production of hydrogen sulfate ions. It was possible to observe that the most significant effects on the rate of hydrolysis were the initial pH, the total amount of sodium chloride and the temperature. The results were also discussed in terms of the ion-exchange pseudophase model of the micelle reaction. Accordingly to the fitting of parameters that was carried out it is possible to conclude that the pseudo-phase ion-exchange theory is found to account satisfactorily for the results reported and it was used to predict the stability behavior of the product at room temperature and under normal commercial conditions. A neural network based model was also successfully developed in order to predict the pH behavior in the conditions studied.

Gegenstand der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die UV/Vis-spektroskopische Bestimmung der Kamlet-Taft-Polaritätsparameter von strukturell unterschiedlichen Ionischen Flüssigkeiten (ILs), mit Hilfe von spezifischen solvatochromen Sondenmolekülen. Dabei wurden der Einfluss des Anions und Kations auf die Polarität, sowie die Stärke der Wechselwirkung zwischen beiden Ionen untersucht. Es konnte für Ionischen Flüssigkeiten mit dem 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazoliumkation eine 1H-NMR-spektroskopische Methode zur Ermittlung der Polaritätsparameter entwickelt werden. Diese bietet den Vorteil, dass sie auch bei farbigen, hydrolyseempfindlichen oder höher schmelzenden ILs eingesetzt werden kann, wenn die Anwendung solvatochromer Sondenmoleküle nicht möglich ist. Ein weiteres Augenmerk lag auf der Untersuchung der Wechselwirkung zwischen den ILs und silikatischen Oberflächen. Neben der Studie der anionenvermittelten starken Physisorption von 1-Methylimidazoliumchlorid an Aerosil®300 konnte auch eine neuartige Methode zur gezielten Chemisorption von Imidazolium- und Phosphoniumkationen an Siliziumdioxidoberflächen entwickelt werden. Dabei wurden verschieden Carbene und Ylide als basische IL-typische Kationenprecursoren eingesetzt. Die Analyse der erhaltenen Materialien erfolgte mit Hilfe verschiedener Methoden der Festkörper-NMR-Spektroskopie.

Unsaturated sugars constitute as an important category of carbohydrate precursors in synthesis. Specifically, 1,2- and 2,3-unsaturated glycosides are excellent intermediates to derivatize monosaccharides and as building blocks in organic synthesis. For example, a major utility of 1,2-unsaturated sugars, namely glycals, is the addition reactions to afford 2-deoxy glycosides under acidic conditions and rearrangement reactions to produce 2,3-unsaturated glycosides. Lewis acids favour the formation of 2,3-unsaturated glycosides, whereas, Brønsted acids lead to normal addition products. A mixture of both the product is obtained often, depending on the nucleophiles and the stereochemistry of glycal. Chapter 1 of the thesis describes (i) reactivities of glycals under acidic condition and (ii) a general survey of reactions involving on C2-C3 carbons of monosaccharides. Glycals are useful precursors to derive a number of functionalized monosaccharide derivatives. A well-known acid catalyzed reaction of glycals is their conversion to 2,3¬unsaturated glycosides, known as the Ferrier products. In a research programme, reactivity switching and selective activation of C-1 or C-3 of 2,3-unsaturated thioglycosides under acid catalyzed condition was undertaken. Thioglycosides are excellent glycosyl donors and can be activated easily. In identifying the reactivities of 2,3-unsaturated thioglycosides, obtained through Ce(IV)-mediated reaction of a glycal, it was intended to study the glycosylation reaction and also the reactivity control of C1-C3 carbons during a glycosylation reaction. Experiments showed that a reactivity switching was possible through activation of either C-1 or C-3. Thus, C-1 glycosylation with alcohol acceptors occurred in the presence of NIS/TfOH, without the acceptors reacting at C-3. On the other hand, reaction of 2,3-unsaturated thioglycosides with alcohols mediated by triflic acid alone led to a transposition of C-1 ethylthio-moiety to C-3 intramolecularly, to form 3-ethylthio-glycals. Resulting glycals underwent glycosylation with alcohols to afford 3-ethylthio-2-deoxy glycosides. However, when thiol was used as an acceptor, only a stereoselective addition at C-3 resulted, so as to form C-1, C-3 dithio-substituted 2-deoxypyranosides. Oxocarbenium ion is the reactive intermediate during activation of a glycosyl donor, and in the case of a 2,3-unsaturated thioglycosides, the oxocarbenium ion may stabilize further by the presence of a C2-C3 unsaturation. Reaction of a nucleophile with allylic oxocarbenium ion may lead to two regio-isomers. Initially, NIS/TfOH was attempted on 2,3–unsaturated sugar with various alcohols and it was found that C-1 was the preferred reactive centre (Scheme 1) Scheme 1 In order to optimize the reaction for selective nucleophilic attack at C-3, further study was continued by using stoichiometric TfOH, in presence of acceptors alcohols with the intension to activate the double bond. The reaction led to the formation of 2-deoxy O-glycosides with the concomitant transposition of C-1 ethylthio-moiety to C-3 (Scheme 2). Scheme 2 An important observation was that the transposition of thioethyl group from C-1 to C-3 was highly regioselective. For example, with thiocresol as the nucleophile, there was an addition across the C-2-C-3 double bond to afford C-1, C-3-dithio derivative (Scheme 2). Thus, hard-soft nature of the nucleophiles, as well as, carbon centres helped to rationalize the reactivites. It was also observed that the intramolecular transposition of thioethyl group is highly stereo-controlled by equatorial C-4 acetoxy group. Thus, thioethyl nucleophile approached selectively at C-3 and afforded trans-diequatorial products. This rationalization was further confirmed through (i) reaction of benzyl protected 2,3-unsaturated thioglycoside, wherein a C-3 epimeric mixture was observed in 1:1 ratio; (ii) galactosyl derivative under similar reaction condition afforded anomeric mixture of 3-(4-methylphenylthio)-O-glycosides, with trans-diaxial orientation of substituent at C-3 (Scheme 3). Scheme 3 These reactions confirmed the role of C-4 substituent on the carbocation at C-3, through the presence or absence of a neighbouring group participation. In summary, in Chapter 2 the selective activation of either anomeric carbon or C-3 with proper choice of activation and reactivity control at each carbon will be described. Thioglycosides are excellent glyosyl donor and their glycosylation reactions were well explored. Upon indentifying the intramolecular transposition of thioalkyl/aryl functionality from C-1 to C-3, further investigations was undertaken to utilize the newly formed carbon sulfur bonds at C-3. Realizing a potential for such 3-alkyl/aryl thio 2-deoxy sugar, the Pummerer rearrangement was investigated. For this purpose, the thioalkyl/aryl moiety at C-3 was oxidized first to a sulfoxide. The resulting sulfoxide was allowed to undergo Pummerer rearrangement to afford vinyl sulfide (Scheme 4), resulting from the elimination of HOAc in the thioacetal formed in situ. Having implemented Pummerer rearrangement on a sugar substrate, synthetic utility of the rearrangement product, namely vinyl sulfide was undertaken. An effort to implement conjugate addition reaction was undertaken, which required the conversion of vinyl sulfide to vinyl sulfoxide in the first step. The conjugate addition reactions were first conducted with alkoxide nucleophiles. The reaction showed that addition of nucleophiles occurred from axial face to furnish manno-configured derivatives as a single diastereomer at sulfinyl sulfur in a moderate yield along with O-deacetylated product. It was also found that O-benzyl protected sugar vinyl sulfoxide was totally resistant to the conjugate addition reaction (Scheme 4). Scheme 4 In order to find the influence of the substituents in sulfoxide moiety in the addition of nucleophiles, additional study was conducted in which a less hindered thioethyl moiety was installed in place of p-tolylthio moiety. To install ethylthio moiety, a similar sequence of reaction was undertaken as described previously in Scheme 4. Conjugate addition reaction with alkoxide nucleophiles was conducted and analysis of the reaction showed that the addition of alkoxides remained similar, leading to the formation of manno-configuration of substituents (Scheme 5). Scheme 5 The configuration of the Michael adducts were ascertained from 1H NMR, as well as 2D NMR spectroscopies. H-1 of all adducts appeared as an apparent singlet, consistent with very small J1,2 values. Aryl vinyl sulfoxide afforded conjugate addition product at much higher ratio than corresponding alkyl vinyl sulfoxide. Thus, among aryl and alkyl vinyl sulfoxides, conjugate addition occurred better with the aryl vinyl sulfoxide, indicating a strong electronic effect of aryl group in stabilizing the conjugate anion which would form in situ during nucleophilic addition with vinyl sulfoxide. Therefore, p-tolylthio substituted vinyl sulfoxide served as a more efficient Michael acceptor when compared to the thioethyl substituted vinyl sulfoxide. Asymmetric environment of vinyl sulfoxides play a vital role during the reaction. Vinyl sulfoxides can exist in two stereochemically distinct conformation which makes the vinyl group electronically dissimilar. In one of the conformer S-O and C-C bonds are coplanar, whereas in the other conformation, these two bonds are opposite to each other. It is agreed generally that vinyl sulfoxides generally try to adopt the most reactive conformer during the reaction in which the C-C and S-O bonds are syn to each other. Thus, the preference for an axial attack would originate from a face anti to the lone pair of electrons on the sulfur of sulfoxide functionality, leading to the formation of the product with manno-configuration. As O-deacetylated vinyl sulfoxide was obtained along with the Michael adducts, it was assumed that one of the epimers of vinyl sulfoxide appeared to be more reactive when compared to the other. Chapter 3 describes implementation of a Pummerer rearrangement in order to synthesize a sugar vinyl sulfoxide and its conjugate addition reactions with alkoxide nucleophiles. The nucleophilic addition reactions of vinyl sulfoxide with other nucleophiles were studied further. The effect of the substituents of chiral sulfoxides in conjugate addition reactions was also incorporated in the course of reactions. Reactions of amines, carbon and sulfur nucleophiles were undertaken with p-tolylthio-substituted vinyl sulfoxides. The reactions showed formation of the addition-elimination products (Scheme 6). All primary amines, carbon and sulfur nucleophiles afforded C-2 axial epimer, namely, threo-epimer exclusively, wherein secondary amines furnished the equatorial vs axial epimer in 3:1 ratio. Scheme 6 In order to assess the course of the reaction, vinyl sulfoxide presenting a p-cumenethio¬moiety was installed in place of p-tolylthio moiety. Conjugate addition reactions were performed with both primary as well as secondary amines that showed formation of the C-2 epimeric mixtures. With both the primary and secondary amines C-2 equatorial epimer was found to be as the major product (Scheme 7). Scheme 7 In conjugate addition of vinyl sulfoxides, nucleophiles approach the olefinic face preferentially, which is anti to the electron rich sulfur lone pair of electrons and syn to the bulky aryl group. Therefore, C-2 axial epimer was observed as most favourable product. However, secondary amines remarkably influenced the pattern as well as selectivity of the reaction. Steric considerations were likely to dictate the overall reactivity with secondary amines which was even more pronounced when using p-cumenethio-substituted vinyl sulfoxide. Chapter 4 describes the conjugate additions as well as remote effect of aryl substituent on the selectivity of addition of amines on sugar sulfoxide In summary, the Thesis establishes: A new reactivity of switching and a selective activation of 2,3-unsaturated thioglycoside; A Pummerer rearrangement route in order to synthesize sugar vinyl sulfide for the first time, which on selective oxidation furnish a sugar vinyl sulfoxide, a useful precursor for conjugate addition reactions; An assessment of the stereoelectronic, as well as, steric effect of the chiral vinyl sulfoxide with various nucleophiles in conjugate addition reactions; Influence of the protecting groups were also studied in conjugate addition reactions. Overall the study presented in the Thesis provides a new insight to unsaturated sugars. The salient features of the present findings also showed that the intermediates such as C-3 substituted thioalkyl/aryl glycosides, vinyl sulfides, a variety of new C-2 substituted vinyl sulfoxides are also the potential sites for many types of modifications in monosaccharides. (For structural formula pl see the pdf file)

There is an increasing trend towards advancing the understanding and development of ethylene oligomerization catalysts, both in academia and industry. The metal of choice in this chemistry is invariably chromium, which has shown great versatility in selective trimerization/tetramerization, non-selective oligomerization and polymerization of ethylene. While much success has been achieved in ethylene trimerization, the same con not be said about tetramerization catalysis. Aminophosphine based ligands have demonstrated their ability towards selective 1-octene production, however, the popular PNP catalyst is able to achieve only 70% selectivity. In order to explore the possibility of developing and enhancing the selectivity of chromium based ethylene tetramerization catalyst, this thesis work was undertaken. The ligand systems we chose for our work were bidentate aminophosphine based (PN(CH2)nNP), which has yielded interesting selective oligomerization. Subtle modifications were found to result in drastic changes in selectivity, from tetramerization (PN(CH2)3NP) to trimerization (PN(CH2)2NP). We managed to successfully develop the first truly selective (over 90%) 1-octene catalyst with polymer-free behavior. Further modifications on the ligand framework, where one atom of Si was used to link the two NP units, resulted in non-selective oligomerization, in which case we determined that the oxidation-state of chromium is a key player. We explored other modifications on our selective ligands in which one of the arms on the bidentate ligand was replaced with a base-donor amine, phosphine or pyridine, and resulted in interesting selectivity changes. The final modification that we tested was a novel N(CH2)2P ligand and found it to be a highly active, non-selective oligomerization catalyst.

Le 21e siècle est le berceau d’une conscientisation grandissante sur les impacts environnementaux des processus utilisés pour synthétiser des molécules cibles. Parmi les avancées qui ont marqué ces dernières décennies, il est également question de réduction de déchets, de conservation de l’énergie et de durabilité des innovations. Ces aspects constituent les lignes directrices de la chimie verte. De ce fait, il est impératif de développer des stratégies de synthèse dont les impacts environnementaux sont bénins. Dans ce mémoire nous présentons la synthèse, la caractérisation et l’étude des propriétés catalytiques en milieu aqueux d’un ligand composé d’une unité -cyclodextrine native, d’une unité imidazolium et d’une chaine alkyle à 12 carbones. Ce ligand hybride s’auto-assemble dans l’eau sous forme de micelles, permettant ainsi d’effectuer en sa présence des couplages de Suzuki-Miyaura dans l’eau, avec de bons rendements. La fonctionnalisation de la face primaire de la -cyclodextrine par un noyau alkyl-imidazolium, précurseur de ligand de type carbène N-hétérocyclique, a permis le développement d’un système catalytique vert et hautement recyclable. Dans un deuxième temps, nous présentons l’utilisation du même ligand hybride dans des couplages de Heck dans l’eau, démontrant ainsi la versatilité du ligand. / Chemistry keeps evolving in new directions. Research has provided improved methodologies for the design and synthesis of targeted molecules. At the same time, the 21st century is witnessing increasing concern about the environmental impacts of chemical wastes. A new philosophy of chemical research and engineering has emerged, known as «Green chemistry». This concept encourages the design of products, processes and technologies that minimize the use and generation of hazardous substances. Therefore, there is an urge to develop environmentally friendly process to convert molecules into product of interest. In the present thesis, we describe the synthesis, characterization and catalytic properties of a novel alkylimidazolium-modified β-cyclodextrin (-CD). Our strategy was to construct a single amphiphilic bimodal ligand by the combination of a mass transfer unit (-CD), covalently bound to a ligand moiety (alkylimidazolium, an N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) precursor) for aqueous catalysis. First, we demonstrated that the introduction of a dodecyl chain on the imidazolium moiety attached to the primary face of a native β-CD allows the formation of a highly active micellar self-assembled catalytic system in neat water with remarkable recyclable properties for the Suzuki–Miyaura coupling. In addition, we studied the versatility of this self-assembled bimodal system by performing Heck coupling in neat water.

Photofragment velocity-map imaging (VMI) has generally been employed to investigate the photodissociation dynamics of relatively small molecular systems (< 5 atoms). The work reported in this thesis focuses on the application of this technique for the investigation of the unimolecular photodissociation of larger chemical systems, which are of interest to a broad cross section of the chemical community. Typically, VMI studies involve state-selective detection of one particular fragmentation product, and so are often limited to the investigation of a single dissociation channel. By employing vacuum ultra-violet (VUV) photoionization, we are able to detect most, if not all of the fragments resulting from the dissociation of a neutral species, with ‘universal’ ionization being achieved in the ideal case when the fragment ionization energies are all lower than the VUV photon energy. This capability becomes particularly important when investigating larger systems, since these often display complex dynamics with multiple competing fragmentation pathways. Our approach allows us to investigate the different photofragmentation processes occurring for a particular system, to evaluate the relative importance of the active dissociation channels, and to gain insight into the energy partitioning amongst the fragments. A study of the UV photodissociation of two neutral alkyl iodide molecules demonstrates the first use in our laboratory of ‘universal’ ionization in combination with VMI. Studies into the photofragmentation processes resulting from 193 nm photoexcitation of neutral N,N-dimethylformamide, a small-molecule model for a peptide bond, and a number of neutral cyclic alkenes, which undergo the retro-Diels-Alder reaction, are also presented. The remaining studies presented in this thesis have investigated the photofragmentation processes of ionic species, generated by means of VUV photoionization. In the case of ion dissociation each fragmentation channel necessarily produces one charged species, which may be detected using the VMI technique. Therefore, such studies provide an insight into all of the active channels. An in-depth VMI study of the UV photodissociation of two ethyl halide cations is presented, which demonstrates the successful investigation of the multiple photofragmentation pathways of these ionic species. The remainder of the cation photodissociation studies are of relevance to a number of common processes known to occur in mass spectrometry, including the McLafferty rearrangement, the retro-Diels-Alder reaction, and ‘peptide’ bond fragmentation. By velocity-map imaging the products of these reactions, further information is obtained concerning these dissociation processes, which are no doubt of interest to the wider chemical community. This work forms part of the velocity-map imaging mass spectrometry (VMImMS) project. VMImMS involves imaging each of the fragmentation products that result from dissociation of a parent molecule of interest, with the aim of increasing the amount of information that can be obtained from a mass-spectrometry-type experiment. The work presented in this thesis demonstrates that VMImMS allows us to unravel details of the dissociation dynamics of both neutral and ionic species, and is potentially a powerful technique for investigating the fragmentation processes of increasingly complex systems.

This Thesis describes the synthesis and characterisation of new Main Group and Rare Earth alkyl, amide, alkoxide and borohydride complexes and their use as catalysts for the ring-opening polymerisation (ROP) of &epsilon;-caprolactone and rac-lactide. <strong>Chapter 1</strong> introduces ROP from an industrial and academic perspective, as well as polymer characterisation techniques. A literature review is given, with an emphasis placed on Main Group catalysts. <strong>Chapter 2</strong> describes the synthesis and characterisation of new homo- and hetero-scorpionate Main Group complexes. An introduction to homo- and hetero-scorpionate ligands is given, as well as a discussion of the ε-caprolactone and rac-lactide ROP activity displayed by the new complexes. <strong>Chapter 3</strong> describes the synthesis and characterisation of new neutral and cationic Main Group borohydride complexes supported by the tris(pyrazolyl)methane and tris(pyrazolyl)hydroborate ligands. A review of borohydride complexes is also given. The ε-caprolactone and rac-lactide ROP activity shown by the complexes presented is also discussed. <strong>Chapter 4</strong> describes the synthesis and characterisation of new mono- and di-cationic yttrium complexes supported by the tris(pyrazolyl)methane and triazacyclononane ligands. An introduction to the synthesis of neutral and cationic Rare Earth complexes is given. An overview of immortal ROP is also provided. The activity of the new complexes towards the immortal ROP of rac-lactide is also discussed. <strong>Chapter 5</strong> contains experimental details and characterising data for the new complexes reported in this thesis. CD Appendix</strong> contains .cif files for all of the new crystallographically characterised complexes.

L'oxydoréduction des monocouches auto-assemblées («Self-assembled monolayers ou SAMs) de ferrocenyldodecanethiolates sur une surface d'or (Fc(CH2)12SAu) dans des solutions aqueuses de n-alkyle sulfate de sodium (6, 8, 10 et 12 atomes de carbone) est étudiée par spectroscopie de résonance des plasmons de surface («Surface Plasmons Resonance ou SPR) couplée avec de la voltampérométrie cyclique (VC). La technique SPR est utilisée pour suivre en temps réel l'adsorption des tensioactifs en fonction du potentiel appliqué. Elle permet de quantifier l'épaisseur et le recouvrement des molécules adsorbées pour déterminer l'organisation des tensioactifs anioniques sur la SAM. La VC est utilisée afin de caractériser l'oxydation du groupement ferrocène en présence des n-alkyle sulfate de sodium qui s'associent à la SAM grâce à l'appariement entre le ferrocénium et le groupement sulfate. Des mélanges binaires d'alkylesulfates de différentes compositions sont utilisés dans le but de déterminer l'organisation induite par une réaction d'oxydoréduction. L'effet de la longueur de la chaîne d'hydrocarbures sur la quantité de tensioactifs anioniques adsorbés ainsi que les affinités relatives d'appariement des anions alkyle sulfate aux ferrocéniums sont rapportés dans ce mémoire. Ces surfaces électrosensibles permettront la détection de molécules amphiphiles et la compréhension du comportement de mélanges binaires de tensioactifs. Ainsi, ces travaux apporteront une avancée sur la modulation électrochimique de l'organisation de matériaux sur des substrats solides basée sur l'appariement d'ions. / The redox-induced pairing from aqueous solution of a homologous series of sodium n-alkyl sulfate (6, 8, 10 and 12 carbon atoms) to self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of ferrocenyldodecanethiolates on a gold surface (Fc(CH2)12SAu) is investigated by spectroscopy of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) coupled with the cyclic voltammetry (CV). The SPR technique is used to monitor in real time the adsorption of surfactant in function of the applied potential. It quantifies the adsorbed layer thickness and surface coverage to determine the organization of anionic surfactants on SAM. CV is used to characterize the oxidation of ferrocene group in the presence of sodium n-alkyl sulfates that associate with SAM through matching between the ferrocenium and sulfate group. Binary mixtures of alkylesulfates of different compositions are used to determine the structure induced by a redox reaction. The effect of the length of the hydrocarbon chain on the amount of anionic surfactants adsorbed and the relative affinities of matching the ferroceniums alkyl sulfate anions are reported in this thesis. These electrosensitive surfaces allow the detection of amphiphilic molecules and the understanding the behavior of binary mixtures of surfactants. Thus, this work will result in progress on the electrochemical modulation organizing materials on solid substrates based on the ion-pairing.