Thesis advisor: Kian L. Tan / Utilization of directing groups in a general and efficient manner for highly regioselective hydroformylation of 1,1-disubstituted olefins. / Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Chemistry.

Part A: Synthesis of 5- and 6-Membered Camphor-Based Hydrazides as Organocatalysts for Cycloaddition Reactions The favorable environmental and reactivity qualities of organocatalysts are contributing to the popularization of this method for the acceleration of enantioselective reactions. Research in our group has been focused on the synthesis of camphor-derived hydrazide based organocatalysts for enantioselective cycloaddition processes. Recent results suggest that the presence of an exocyclic electron withdrawing group on the hydrazide moiety, as well as the incorporation of the hydrazide moiety into a 6-membered ring, may have a beneficial effect on the kinetics of the catalysts. A variety of camphor-based cyclic hydrazides have been synthesized and tested in Diels-Alder reactions, varying both the ring size and placement of the electron withdrawing group. Part B: Synthesis of Isocampholenic Acids by the Rearrangement of Camphor Derivatives A variety of substituted isocampholenic acid derivatives have been prepared by rearrangement of the camphor skeleton of a variety of tertiary alcohols derived from ketopinic acid. The reaction is highly reliable and retains the stereochemical information from the camphor scaffold. This rearrangement represents an efficient way to prepare synthetically useful isocampholenic acids. Mechanistic experiments show that the rearrangement does not involve exogenous water and that a short-lived carbocation is implicated in the reaction. Part C: Diastereoselective Formation of Quaternary Centers from Stereodefined Trisubstituted Alkenes Previous work in our laboratory has focused on the preparation of single-isomer tri- and tetra-substituted olefins. This methodology has been used in the construction of a variety of alkenyl esters in good to excellent yields. These alkenyl esters could then be transformed into the corresponding 3,3-disubstituted allyl boronates in a stereocontrolled fashion. There are a limited number of methods available to prepare single isomer 3,3-disubstituted allyl boronates, which can be important precursors in the stereoselective preparation of all-carbon quaternary centers. Our methodology has therefore been applied to the construction of single isomer 3,3-disubstituted allyl boronates and subsequently used in the stereoselective generation of all-carbon quaternary centers by the reaction of these allyl boronates with aldehydes.

La synthèse asymétrique organo-catalysée est un domaine de recherche en pleine expansion visant une chimie plus verte. Nous nous sommes intéressés au développement d’une réaction de Michael asymétrique organocatalysée en mettant à profit la catalyse par liaison hydrogène et l’activation énamine afin de contrôler en une seule étape la formation d’adduits portant un centre carboné quaternaire à partir de cétones non activées. Ainsi, nous avons développé des organocatalyseurs bifonctionnels de type squaramide qui ont permis d’obtenir les adduits de Michael attendu à partir de cycloalcanones alpha-substituées avec une bonne énantiosélectivité et une grande régiosélectivité dans un processus sous micro-ondes et sans solvant. Nous avons développé de nouveaux systèmes catalytiques sur la base du motif squaramide qui sont simples, efficaces et opérationnels. Nous avons étudié également l'utilité de nos systèmes organocatalytiques dans d'autres transformations comme la polymérisation verte. Afin de réduire l'utilisation de métaux toxiques pour produire des polymères bien définis sans trace de métaux et d'importance environnementale ou médicale, nous avons également étudié comment nos organo-catalyseurs de type squaramide pourraient contrôler la polymérisation verte par ouverture de cycle. Les systèmes organocatalytiques basés sur des squaramides étaient également applicables à la polymerisation par ouverture de cycle afin de donner des polylactides de dispersité étroite et de masses moléculaires contrôlées. / Organocatalyzed asymmetric synthesis is a growing and rapidly expanding research field for a greener chemistry. In this respect, we were interested in developing an organocatalyzed asymmetric Michael reaction taking advantage of H-bond catalysis and enamine activation allowing control of quaternary carbon center from unactivated ketones. Hence compared with well-known H-bond donor urea and thiourea organocatalysts, we first propose bifunctional squaramide organocatalysts for the one-pot transformation of unsymmetrical ketones to produce Michael adducts exhibiting a stereocontrolled quaternary carbon center in a neat microwave process. We also developped new catalytic systems based on the squaramide motive that are efficient and operationnaly simple, and produce Michael adducts in a good regioselectivity with an excellent enantio-selectivity. We also studied the usefulness of our systems in other transformations like green polymerization. In order to reduce the use of toxic metals to produce metal-free and well-defined polymers of environmental and medical significance, we also studied how our squaramide organocatalysts could control the green ring opening polymerization (ROP.The squaramide organocatalyst-based systems were also applicable to ROP to give polylactides of narrow dispersity and controlled molecular masses.