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Obtaining enantiomerically pure compounds is of major importance in modern organic chemistry, and this PhD thesis outlines new advances made in this area. Two new enantioselective synthetic methodologies have been designed using isothiourea based- organocatalysts. A brief introduction to the recent literature involving this catalyst architecture is presented. Then, the results of the structure-activity relationship study carried out on a range of isothiourea catalysts for the kinetic resolution of (±)-1-naphthylethanol 16 is described. Chiral isothiourea HBTM 2.1 58 was identified as the optimum catalyst and was further employed in the resolution of a range of secondary alcohols. Good levels of conversion (c~50%) and selectivity (S up to 100) were achieved delivering alcohols in high levels of enantioselectivity (up to 98% ee). The synthetic utility of this process was subsequently demonstrated through isolation of a range of enantiopure alcohols (>99% ee) on a preparative scale, using low catalyst loading of HBTM 2.1 (0.10 mol%). Secondly, a new organocatalytic asymmetric transformation involving the generation of a C1-ammonium enolate using isothiourea is described. An intramolecular Michael addition-lactonisation (IMAL) of enone-acid substrates was developed using (‒)-tetramisole 37 as a catalyst. The generality of this protocol was probed via structural variation of the enone-acid substrates, providing a range of highly functionalised syn-polycyclic carbo- and heterocycles in excellent yields, diastereo- and enantioselectivities (up to 99% yield, 99 : 1 dr and 99% ee). Whilst investigating this process, we discovered that using cinchona alkaloid derivatives as catalysts gave preferential access to the diastereomeric anti-products. Therefore, a range of anti-dihydrobenzofurans was synthesised from readily available starting materials in good yield and stereoselectivities (up to 73%, 20 : 80 dr and 99% ee) using OTMS-quinidine catalyst. These two complementary synthetic strategies allowed facile and controllable access to both syn- and anti-diasteroisomers of a product in high enantioselectivity via judicious choice of catalyst. Subsequently, two telescoped procedures combining the synthesis of the enone-acid through olefination and asymmetric functionalisation were designed, giving rapid access to stereodefined pyrrolidines in high levels of diastereo- and enantioselectivitiy (up to 99 : 1 dr and 99% ee). The last part of this thesis describes preliminary studies toward the development of a doubly diastereoselective intramolecular Michael addition-lactonisation process, opening new avenues for the construction of complex molecular architectures.

Process options to minimise the environmental impact and improve the efficiency of biodiesel production have been investigated. The process options considered include the use of heterogeneous catalysts and used cooking oil (UCO). An esterification pre-treatment reaction was investigated using an ion-exchange resin (Purolite D5082) and an immobilised enzyme (Novozyme 435). Another immobilised enzyme (Amano Lipase PS-IM) was investigated for transesterification. The fresh and used catalysts have been characterised. The catalytic activity of Purolite D5082, Novozyme 435 and Amano Lipase PS-IM have been investigated using a jacketed batch reactor with a reflux condenser. Purolite D5082 has been developed for the esterification pre-treatment process and is not commercially available. Novozyme 435 has been shown to be an effective esterification catalyst for materials with high concentrations of free fatty acid but it has not been investigated for the esterification pre-treatment reaction. It was found that a high conversion was possible with both catalysts. The optimum reaction conditions identified for Purolite D5081 were a temperature of 60 C, a methanol to free fatty acid (FFA) mole ratio of 62:1, a catalyst loading of 5 wt% resulting in a FFAs conversion of 88% after 8 h of reaction time. The optimum conditions identified for Novozyme 435 were a temperature of 50 C, a methanol to FFA mole ratio of 6.2:1 and a catalyst loading of 1 wt% resulting in a conversion of 90% after 8 h of reaction time. These catalysts were compared to previously investigated Purolite D5081 and it was found that the highest conversion of 97% was achieved using Purolite D5081, however there were benefits to using Novozyme 435 because the reaction could be carried out using a much lower mole ratio, at a lower temperature and in much shorter reaction time. During the Novozyme 435 catalysed esterification pre-treatment reactions it was found that the amount of free fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) formed during the reaction was greater than the amount of FFAs consumed. In order to investigate further an ultra-performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) method was developed to monitor the monogclyeride (MG), diglyceride (DG) and triglyceride (TG) concentrations. This analytical method was used to show that Novozyme 435 would catalyse the esterification of FFAs as well as the transesterification of MGs and DGs typically found in UCO. With the UPLC-MS method it was possible to separate the 1, 2 and 1, 3 DG positional isomers and from this it could be seen that the 1, 3 isomer reacted more readily than the 1, 2 isomer. The results from the UPLC-MS method were combined with a kinetic model to investigate the reaction mechanism. The kinetic model indicated that the reaction progressed with the sequential hydrolysis esterification reactions in parallel with transesterification. Commercially available Amano Lipase PS-IM was investigated for the transesterification reaction. Enzymes are not affected by FFAs and as a result the optimisation was carried out with UCO as the raw material. An optimisation study for the transesterification of UCO with Amano Lipase PS-IM has not previously been reported. The conditions identified for the Amano Lipase PS-IM catalysed transesterification step are addition of 5 vol% water, a temperature of 30 C, a methanol to UCO mole ratio of 3:1 and a catalyst loading of 0.789 wt% resulting in a TG conversion of 43%. An overall enzyme catalysed process was proposed consisting of Amano Lipase PS-IM catalysed transesterification (stage 1) followed by Novozyme 435 catalysed esterification (stage 2). The previously identified optimum conditions identified for each catalyst were used for above stages. It was found that when the oil layer from stage 1 was dried the final TG conversion was 55%.

Different diphosphine ligands having the structure shown below have been studied for carbonylation and hydroformylation reactions. Depending on the substituent on the phosphorus atoms the electronic and steric properties can be tuned to direct the reaction towards the desired products. Palladium methoxycarbonylation of a large variety of unsaturated compounds has been attempted under very different conditions. The outcome of these reactions was the achievement of the linear products with a selectivity higher than 99.5 % under mild conditions of pressure and temperature. Chloroaromatic compounds have also been employed as substrates in methoxycarbonylation reactions. Unexpected results were observed since carbonylation was possible only when a strong electron withdrawing group was present. The origin of the many side products from these reactions has been elucidated. Rhodium hydroformylation was not as successful as palladium Methoxycarbonylation since relatively severe conditions had to be used to get good rates and good selectivity. In no case were there as good as those obtained in the carbonylation reactions. However, unusual factors, such as the presence of chlorine in the reaction media, have been found to influence either the conversion or the selectivity.

A series of novel monodentate and bidentate phosphine ligands substituted with bulky tert-butyl and fluorinated aryl groups have been synthesised. Borane protection has proved to be an excellent method for easy synthesis and purification of bidentate ligands in some cases. However, several of the bulky fluorinated ligands do not form stable borane complexes leading to complications in the synthesis and purification of these compounds. By reaction with transition metal platinum and palladium precursors, it was possible to form dichloride complexes from the synthesised ligands, which were characterised by X-ray crystallography. The complexes were found to be effective catalysts for the hydroxycarbonylation of vinyl arenes (yields of up to 95 % with 3 mol% catalyst). An unsymmetrical bidentate complex (3.18) in combination with paratoluenesulfonic acid and LiCl promoters has given exceptional (for a diphosphine ligand) regioselectivity for the branched acid (98.7 % branched) in the hydroxycarbonylation of styrene. The role of the promoters has been found to be crucial in deciding the activity and selectivity in this reaction.

Reaction progress kinetic analysis (RPKA) is a powerful tool for determining kinetic parameters of catalytic reactions. Many of the published articles that have used RPKA have employed reaction calorimetry for obtaining sufficient data to be reliable. The use of gas uptake measurements, in place of calorimetry is explored in this Thesis. Chapter 2 details the use of gas uptake measurements in establishing the order with respect to substrate and gas for the rhodium catalysed hydrogenation of 1-octene. Previous studies have used initial rate measurements to establish these orders and the reaction cycle is well known. The use of RPKA allows the same information to be established in two reactions. Chapter 3 focuses on the rhodium catalysed hydroformylation of 1-octene as it involves the reaction of one substrate with two gases. Using RPKA it is possible to determine the order in substrate and the overall order in gas, but it was found difficult to determine the order with respect to the individual gases using RPKA alone. Chapter 4 shows the palladium catalysed methoxycarbonylation of vinyl acetate. The reaction has two substrate concentrations changing simultaneously as well as a gas. This chapter shows that by careful design of experiments the orders with respect to each of these substrates and CO can be determined in minimal numbers of experiments. Chapter 5 focuses on the methoxycarbonylation of alkynes, which uses RPKA in complex multistep reactions, to establish if RPKA can be used to determine the kinetics with respect to the individual reacting components for each step. This study focuses on the methoxycarbonylation of phenylacetylene to produce methyl cinnamate as well as the methoxycarbonylation of both terminal and internal linear alkynes. These linear alkynes carbonylate to produce an α,β-unsaturated ester. The double bond is isomerised from its conjugated position along the chain to the terminal position where it is trapped and carbonylated to produce an α,ω-dieter product.

published_or_final_version / Chemistry / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Chemistry / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Chemistry / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Chemistry / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy