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Bioorthogonal reactions, due to its excellent selectivity and time-efficiency, have emerged as a popular tool for protein and cell probing. Among all the bioorthogonal reactions, the inverse electron-demand Diels-Alder reaction (IEDDA) reaction has its advantage of bearing the fastest kinetics. Although the IEDDA reaction drew considerable attention in chemical biology in the last decade, challenges lie in finding the suitable dienophiles. Strained dienophiles, for example, trans-cyclooctene derivatives, can undergo ultrafast IEDDA reactions and therefore have been extensively developed. Unstrained alkenes and alkynes, however, have not been well investigated as IEDDA handles. In general, unstrained dienophiles are more straightforward to synthesise compared with strained dienophiles, therefore they are more accessible to researchers. In addition, the absence of a highly reactive bond makes unstrained dienophiles inert to biological nucleophiles, which allows effectively cellular labelling. In this dissertation, I described three different unstrained dienophiles for different biological purposes. Allyl handle is thiol-stable and non-toxic, which was utilised to label apoptotic cells in a pre-targeting manner. Enol ethers can react with tetrazines to decage protected amino acids and prodrugs. Potassium arylethynyltrifluoroborate, as a novel dienophile, was shown to react fast with pyridyl tetrazines controllably and this new IEDDA was applied to label proteins site-selectively and to fluorescently label two proteins orthogonally. In addition to IEDDA reactions, other bioorthogonal reactions were also developed using these versatile unstrained handles. Allyl-bearing amino acids and proteins can undergo an acetophenone-mediated hetero-[2+2] photocycloaddition with maleimide derivatives, expanding the toolbox of photo-triggered chemistry for protein modification. The potassium arylethynyltrifluoroborate handle was also found reactive in copper(I)-catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloaddition reaction (CuAAC) and showcased the huge potential for protein labelling and multicolour cellular labelling.

This is a thesis in two parts. Part A examines two potential routes towards the synthesis of the communesin family of alkaloids, as well as an overview of some of the successful synthetic routes to date. Our first proposed route involves the gold catalyzed isomerization of an o-amino aryallene to a vinyl imine and subsequent (formal) cycloaddition with an indole. This would have allowed quick access to the pentacyclic core of the communesins; however, the unexpected 5-endo-dig product was exclusively obtained in good to excellent yields. The second route involves the use of a Meerwein- Eschenmoser Claisen rearrangement. This route was successful in affording the C, D, E and F rings of the communesin alkaloids, however future work is required for completion of the synthesis. Also discussed in these sections is an alternative endgame approach involving a novel Pictet-Spangler reaction to afford the G ring, and the possibility of an asymmetric variation to the proposed route. Part B examines the use of alkyl aluminum sesquichlorides in the catalysis of Diels-Alder cycloadditions of sterically hindered systems, a current obstacle in organic chemistry. Previously developed methods are discussed and preliminary results are presented. Ethyl aluminum sesquichloride is compared to other alkyl aluminum catalyst, and the effects of temperature, catalysts loading, choice of solvent, the use of additives, and the use of chiral oxazolidinones are reported and what these result can tell us about the mechanism of catalysis are discussed.

This is a thesis in two parts. Part A examines two potential routes towards the synthesis of the communesin family of alkaloids, as well as an overview of some of the successful synthetic routes to date. Our first proposed route involves the gold catalyzed isomerization of an o-amino aryallene to a vinyl imine and subsequent (formal) cycloaddition with an indole. This would have allowed quick access to the pentacyclic core of the communesins; however, the unexpected 5-endo-dig product was exclusively obtained in good to excellent yields. The second route involves the use of a Meerwein- Eschenmoser Claisen rearrangement. This route was successful in affording the C, D, E and F rings of the communesin alkaloids, however future work is required for completion of the synthesis. Also discussed in these sections is an alternative endgame approach involving a novel Pictet-Spangler reaction to afford the G ring, and the possibility of an asymmetric variation to the proposed route. Part B examines the use of alkyl aluminum sesquichlorides in the catalysis of Diels-Alder cycloadditions of sterically hindered systems, a current obstacle in organic chemistry. Previously developed methods are discussed and preliminary results are presented. Ethyl aluminum sesquichloride is compared to other alkyl aluminum catalyst, and the effects of temperature, catalysts loading, choice of solvent, the use of additives, and the use of chiral oxazolidinones are reported and what these result can tell us about the mechanism of catalysis are discussed.

This is a thesis in two parts. Part A examines two potential routes towards the synthesis of the communesin family of alkaloids, as well as an overview of some of the successful synthetic routes to date. Our first proposed route involves the gold catalyzed isomerization of an o-amino aryallene to a vinyl imine and subsequent (formal) cycloaddition with an indole. This would have allowed quick access to the pentacyclic core of the communesins; however, the unexpected 5-endo-dig product was exclusively obtained in good to excellent yields. The second route involves the use of a Meerwein- Eschenmoser Claisen rearrangement. This route was successful in affording the C, D, E and F rings of the communesin alkaloids, however future work is required for completion of the synthesis. Also discussed in these sections is an alternative endgame approach involving a novel Pictet-Spangler reaction to afford the G ring, and the possibility of an asymmetric variation to the proposed route. Part B examines the use of alkyl aluminum sesquichlorides in the catalysis of Diels-Alder cycloadditions of sterically hindered systems, a current obstacle in organic chemistry. Previously developed methods are discussed and preliminary results are presented. Ethyl aluminum sesquichloride is compared to other alkyl aluminum catalyst, and the effects of temperature, catalysts loading, choice of solvent, the use of additives, and the use of chiral oxazolidinones are reported and what these result can tell us about the mechanism of catalysis are discussed.

Aromatic polyimides are interesting materials since they possess outstanding key properties such as thermoxidative stability, high mechanical strength, high modulus, excellent electrical properties, and superior chemical resistance. However, their low solubility makes them difficult to characterize, process and obtain high molecular weight polymer. In this report, we synthesized a series of precursor polymers that contains Diels-Alder (DA) adducts of anthracene. Different dienophiles were tried. These precursor polymers are soluble in common organic solvents such as chloroform and can be easily processed to thin films. Heating the film above 215 degree induce retro-DA reaction, which generated the fully aromatic polyimides in situ. The solid-state retro-DA reactions were monitored by ATR-FTIR and UV-Vis spectra. The fully aromatic polyimides are highly stable and their thin films are insoluble in organic solvents. Profilometry and AFM studies showed that after the thermal treatment, the films are smooth and pin-hole free, while the volumes decreased with a percentage close to the weight loss caused by retro-DA reaction. These Polymers can have a wide range of potential applications from thermal patterning polymers to organic photovoltaics.

Au cours de ce projet de recherche, nous nous sommes intéressés à la synthèse de motifs hétérospiraniques énantioenrichis. De ce fait, notre équipe a pu élaborer une nouvelle voie synthétique pouvant conduire à la synthèse de molécules possédant des structures bicycliques spiraniques diverses. Cette voie de synthèse inédite est articulée sur une réaction de nitroso Diels-Alder. Le contrôle de la stéréosélectivité ainsi que le contrôle de la régiosélectivité, peu décrit dans la littérature, ont été spécifiquement étudiés lors de ces travaux. Nos différentes études ont permis de mieux appréhender ces aspects de la réaction de nitroso Diels-Alder. Deux approches différentes ont d’ailleurs été développées au cours de ces travaux. Celles-ci ont toutes deux conduit a un contrôle total de la régiosélectivité de cette cycloaddition. Les cycloadditions réalisées par une réaction utilisant un diénophile de type nitrosopyridine et catalysées par une source de cuivre chiral ont conduit aux cycloadduits précurseurs d’azaspirobicycles avec une énantiosélectivité modeste. D’autres cycloadditions utilisant un dienophile chiral de type chloronitroso dérivé du D-xylose ont permis la synthèse de précurseurs de bicycles oxaspiraniques avec des excès énantiomériques supérieurs à 95%. Cette dernière approche a permis la synthèse de spiroethers par une réaction d’ouverture de liaison N-O ainsi qu’une réaction de substitution nucléophile intramoléculaire, tandis que des spirolactones ont été obtenus par oxydation du diol résultant de l’ouverture de la liaison N-O. La fonctionnalisation de ces structures a été possible en engageant leur fonction vinyl triflate dans des couplages de Suzuki. Il a ainsi été possible de synthétiser 9 structures différentes oaxaspiraniques dont 5 de façons énantiosélectives. / During this research, we were interested in the synthesis of enantiopur heterospiranic bicycles. We therefore developed a new synthetic route towards the synthesis of molecules with different spirocyclic structures. This novel synthetic route features a nitroso Diels-Alder cycloaddition as key step. The total control of the stereoselectivity and the regioselectivity of the reaction, rarely described in the literature, have been specifically studied during this work. This study allows us to have a better understanding of this reaction. Two different approaches have been developed in this work. They both led to total control of the regioselectivity of this cycloaddition. Cycloadditions performed by reactions using a nitrosopyridine dienophile and catalyzed by a chiral source of copper allows the synthesis of cycloadducts precursor of azaspirocycles with a modest enantioselectivity. Cycloadditions using a chloronitroso chiral dienophile derived from xylose allowed the synthesis of oxaspiraniques precursors with enantioselective excess of at least 95%. The last approach was finally validated by the synthesis of various spiroethers and spirolactones through N-O bond cleavage an intramolecular cyclizations. Finally, the vinyl triflate function of the spirolactones and spiroethers was engaged in Suzuki couplings to introduce molecular diversity at a late stage allowing the synthesis of 9 different spiranic structures including 5 enantioenriched.