N-Heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) are good ligands to most transition metals forming stable complexes. Many of the NHC-metal complexes are now widely used catalysts. However, the usage of these catalysts encounters the general problems associated with homogeneous catalysis: the purification of the catalysis reaction products is often time-consuming and generates large amounts of waste. Moreover, the toxic or expensive catalysts are difficult to be separated, recycled, and reused. Chapters II and III of this dissertation focus on addressing these problems through the development of an easier and “greener” process to improve the usage of some NHC-metal complexes. Polymer-supported catalysts and polymer-supported sequestrants were prepared and used to facilitate the separation/recycling of catalysts and the purification of products. These polymer-supported ligands, catalysts, and sequestrants showed comparable reactivity to their low molecular weight counterparts and had different solubility properties due to the nature of polymers. Using these materials with the corresponding operations provides simple methods to separate deeply colored, metal-containing by-products from the reaction mixtures. Chapter IV of this dissertation aims at solving a fundamental question about the nature of NHC-silver(I) complexes. The NHC-silver(I) complex is an important synthetic intermediate as it can be used to prepare other NHC-metal complexes through transmetallation. The carbene carbon of an NHC-silver(I) complex in 13C NMR spectra was usually reported as a doublet of doublets or as a singlet in different cases. This phenomenon was explained with a ligand exchange mechanism proposed twelve years ago. However, few reports are available in the literature about the mechanism of the NHC ligand exchange processes at silver. In order to facilitate the study of the solution behaviors of NHC-silver(I) complexes, 13C-labeled NHC-silver(I) complexes were prepared and studied using variable temperature 13C NMR spectroscopy. This study could be useful for future applications of ligand transferring from silver to other metals for the preparation of NHC-metal complexes.

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The topic of this thesis is the design and synthesis of biaryl-based self adaptableligands for asymmetric metal catalysis. The results discussed in papers I-III are covered, together with some unpublished results concerning substrate-adaptable catalysts. A general survey of self-adaptable catalysts is presented first. The second chapter of this thesis starts with a survey of inversion barriers in biphenyl-based ligands and catalysts. Thereafter, the determination of barriers to conformational adaptation in dibenzoazepines and dibenzophosphepines is described. Palladium complexes with a diphosphine ligand or a diamine ligand, as well as the free diamine ligand, were studied. Entropies and enthalpies of activation were determined with variable temperature NMR spectroscopy. The mechanism of conformational change in the metal complexes was elucidated. The third chapter describes the synthesis of semiflexible and rigid phosphinite ligands, as well as their application in rhodium-catalysed asymmetric hydrogenation. Modest enantioselectivities (up to 63% ee) were obtained. The semiflexible ligand was found to behave like the most active rigid diastereomer. The fourth chapter describes the behaviour of amine and phosphoramidite ligands in model complexes relevant to the palladium-catalysed asymmetricallylic alkylation of benchmark substrates. Diphosphoramidite and aminephosphoramiditeligands were designed and synthesised. Pd(olefin) complexesof diamine and diphosphoramidite ligands were studied, and their symmetry determined. It was found that both types of ligands are able to adapt their conformation to the substrate. / QC20100630