Design and Development of Carbon-Carbon and Carbon-Heteroatom Bond Forming Reactions” is divided into two sections. Section-A, contains two chapters, describes the catalytic ability of iodine for cross coupling reactions. Section-B, divided into three chapters, presents the azidation of organic scaffolds under oxidative conditions. Section A Chapter 1 presents a C-H functionalization of tetrahydroisoquinolines using iodine as a catalyst under aerobic conditions.1 This methodology employs Cross Dehydrogenative Coupling (CDC) strategy as a key step, which is highly atom economical as it doesn’t require pre-functionalized starting materials.2 Owing to the importance of tetrahydroisoquinoline moiety which is present in the umpteen natural products, considerable attention has been put up to functionalize tetrahydroisoquinoline scaffold.3 Iodine a non-metal which is non-toxic was found to catalyze the C-H functionalization of tetrahydroisoquinolines with a variety of nucleophiles such as coumarin, alkyl phosphite, phenols, indoles, acetone and dialkyl malonoates were coupled to it. Significant mechanistic study has been carried out to find the possible intermediate and support the mechanistic proposal. A few representative examples are highlighted in Scheme 1.1 Synopsis Scheme 1: A CDC coupling of tetrahydroisoquinoline with variety of nucleophiles Chapter 2 describes the Cross Hetero Dehydrogenative Coupling (CHDC) reactions of amines, alcohols and sulfoximines with various phosphites.4 Phosphoramidates and phosphate esters are structural scaffolds that are present in a variety of biologically active molecules.5 The conventional methods for synthesizing phosphoramidates/phosphate esters largely involve treating alcohol/amine with appropriate phosphorus halides which generates stoichiometric amount of halogen waste.6 Due to the usage of stoichiometric reagents and difficulties associated with the reported methods, there is a need for developing a protocol which is catalytic and mild. Therefore, we developed a method which employs catalytic amount of iodine and aq. H2O2 as a sole oxidant under milder conditions. Using this methodology, variety of phosphoramidates, phosphorous triesters and sulfoximine derived Synopsis Scheme 2: Phosphorylation of amines, alcohols and sulfoximines phosphoramidates have been synthesized with great efficiency and environmentally benign conditions. A few representative examples are highlighted in Scheme 2.4 Section B Chapter 1 of Section B demonstrates a mild way of synthesizing quaternary azides from α-substituted active methylene compounds which will serve as surrogates for several unnatural amino acid derivatives.7 Azidation has emerged as one of the efficient methods to introduce nitrogen atom in to the organic molecules.8 Azides are versatile functional groups which can be converted to amine, amide, and nitro compounds by simple modification. Moreover, azides are potential handle for “click” chemistry and provide late stage modifications in drug candidates, biomolecules and polymers, etc.9 Azidation of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds is challenging, as both azides and 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds are nucleophilic in nature. In this section of the thesis, azidation of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds has been carried out using tetrabutyl ammonium iodide (TBAI) as a catalyst, aq. TBHP as an oxidant and TMSN3 as a azide source. This method uses water as a solvent under mild reaction conditions to generate Synopsis quaternary azides in good to excellent yields. This operationally simple, practical, mild and green method provides an opportunity for synthesizing a variety of azidated β-keto esters, amides and ketones in good yields, Scheme 3.7 The application of this methodology has been demonstrated by synthesising a few triazole and pyrazolone derivatives. Scheme 3: Azidation of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds Chapter 2 of Section B comprises the azidation and peroxidation of β-napthol derivatives using dearomatization strategy. Azidation and peroxidation are efficient ways to introduce nitrogen and oxygen into organic molecules, which serve as surrogates for amines and alcohol functional groups. In the present study, the azidative or peroxidative dearomatization of naphthol derivatives have been described. The azidation of β-napthol derivatives has been achieved by using CuBr (5 mol %) as a catalyst, TMSN3 as an azide source and aq. TBHP as an oxidant. Whereas, the peroxidation β-napthol derivatives has been accomplished using CuBr (5 mol %) in the presence of aq. TBHP at ambient reaction conditions.10 The products obtained are naphthalenone derivatives, which serve as valuable Synopsis synthetic intermediates and has potential handle for further functionalization.11 Several α-amino or α-peroxy naphthalenones are synthesized using this method in good yields. The usefulness of the methodology has been illustrated by synthesizing a few chiral azides and peroxides in good yields and with moderate enantioselectivity Scheme 4.10 Scheme 4: Dearomatizative azidation and peroxidation of 2-naphthols Chapter 3 reveals the azidation of indole at C-2 position by employing CuBr (10 mol %) as a catalyst and aq. TBHP as an oxidant in acetonitrile under reflux conditions (Scheme 5).12 The C-H functionalization of indole at C-2 position is one of pivotal methods, since it paves a way for synthesizing a variety of indolo-alkaloids.13 Azide is a versatile functionality which can be converted to several other nitrogen containing functional groups such as Synopsis Scheme 5: Azidation of indoles amine, amide, triazole, etc.9 A variety of functional groups were tolerated under the reaction conditions, and furnished the azidated product in good to excellent yields. Through radical inhibition study, we presume that the reaction may be proceeding through radical mechanism. In Scheme 5, a few representative examples are depicted.

Although α-keto carbocations have been demonstrated to be viable intermediates in solvolysis reactions, their applications in synthesis are scarce. These species can be considered to be equivalent to “reversed polarity” enolates and, as such, could be useful for the asymmetric formation of carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds. In principle, facial selectivity in additions to α-keto carbocations may be induced using easily removed ester, amide, or imide chiral auxiliaries. Efforts to achieve such diastereoselective SN1 reactions of α-keto carbocations are described herein.

Although α-keto carbocations have been demonstrated to be viable intermediates in solvolysis reactions, their applications in synthesis are scarce. These species can be considered to be equivalent to “reversed polarity” enolates and, as such, could be useful for the asymmetric formation of carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds. In principle, facial selectivity in additions to α-keto carbocations may be induced using easily removed ester, amide, or imide chiral auxiliaries. Efforts to achieve such diastereoselective SN1 reactions of α-keto carbocations are described herein.

Les ligands multidentes montrent généralement de très bonnes activités dans la catalyse organométallique au palladium à faibles charges. Parmi ces ligands, l'utilisation des ligands polyphosphines ferrocéniques mènent à des résultats intéressants. Des systèmes catalytiques palladium/triphosphine ferrocénique robustes ont permis d'obtenir d'une part des diarylamines et d'autre part des éthers d'aryle et d'hétéroaryle avec de faibles charges catalytiques. Des calculs théoriques de DFT sur le cycle catalytique lors de la formation d'éthers d'aryle et d'hétéroaryle ont été réalisés. La présence d’un troisième groupement phosphino permettrait de stabiliser les états de transition et accélèrerait l’élimination réductrice. Les triarylamines ont pu être obtenues à l'aide d'une diphosphine ferrocénique avec une charge de 2 mol% de palladium. Des résultats modérés à excellents ont été obtenus. Enfin, les thioéthers d'aryle et d'hétéroaryle ont été obtenus avec d'excellents résultats à l'aide d'une tétraphosphine ferrocénique en présence de 0,2 mol% de palladium / Multidentate ligands usually show great activities in low loading organometallic catalysis in palladium. Among these ligands, the use of ferrocenyl polyphosphane ligands give interesting results. Robust palladium-ferrocenyl triphosphane catalytic systems have permitted to obtain biarylamines and aryl-heteroaryl ethers in the presence of low catalytic loadings. DFT studies on catalytic cycle during formation of aryl-heteroaryl ethers were carried out. The presence of third phosphino group stabilizes a transition state which enhances the rate of the reductive elimination. Triarylamines were obtained with ferrocenyl diphosphane in the presence of 2 mol% of palladium loading. Moderate to excellent results were obtained. Finally, aryl-heteroaryl sulfides were obtained with excellent results with ferrocenyl tetraphosphane ligand in the presence of 0.2 mol% of palladium.

This thesis is focused on the unexplored field of organometallic copper(III) chemistry. Arylcopper(III) complexes have been proposed as key intermediates in Ullmann condensation reactions that consist in the coupling of aryl halides and heteroatom nucleophiles catalyzed by copper. The study of the reactivity of well-defined arylcopper(III) complexes may provide a better understanding of the mechanism of Ullmann condensation reactions, which is still under intense debate. In this doctoral dissertation we study the feasibility of well-defined arylcopper(III) complexes, which are stabilized within macrocyclic ligands, to participate in C-heteroatom bond forming reactions. We develop copper-catalyzed C-N and C-O bond forming reactions, as well halide exchange reactions, including fluorinations, based on Cu(I)/Cu(III) catalytic cycle within model aryl halide substrates. We uncover the fundamental understanding of the two-electron redox steps, oxidative addition and reductive elimination, at copper. / Aquesta tesi es centra en el camp de la química organometàl•lica del coure(III) que roman sense explorar. Els complexos arilcoure(III) s'han proposat com a intermedis clau en les reaccions de condensació Ullmann que consisteixen en l'acoblament d'halurs d'arils i nucleòfils basats en heteroàtoms catalitzades amb coure. L'estudi de la reactivitat de complexos arilcoure(III) ben definits pot proporcionar una millor comprensió del mecanisme de les reaccions de condensació Ullmann, el qual es troba sota un intens debat. En aquesta tesi doctoral s'estudia la viabilitat del complexos arilcoure(III), estabilitzats en lligands macrocíclics, de participar en reaccions de formació d'enllaç carboni-heteroàtom. S'han desenvolupat reaccions de formació d'enllaç C-N i C-O així com reaccions d'intercanvi d'halurs, on s'inclouen fluoracions, catalitzades amb coure i basades en un cicle catalític Cu(I)/Cu(III) utilitzant substrats models d'halur d'aril. S'ha obtingut una comprensió fonamental de les etapes redox a dos electrons, addició oxidant i eliminació reductiva, en coure.