München, Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2003.

In this thesis, we study arylsilane oxidation from both a synthetic and a mechanistic perspective. Building upon previous work within our group, we demonstrate in an early chapter that arylhydrosilanes are surprisingly reactive to oxidation. This disproves the previous assumptions of the Tamao oxidation and provides new insights into the mechanism of the reaction. Furthermore, we find that the best substrates for oxidation are arylmethoxysilanes, and we describe rapid and efficient syntheses for these compounds. A further chapter addresses applications of arylsilane oxidation to natural product synthesis, protecting group chemistry and cycloadditions. By collecting concentration profiles of the oxidation of various arylsilanes, we reveal a rapid equilibration between arylmethoxysilanes and arylsilanols. By comparison, phenol formation (especially from silanol) is often slow. The rate of oxidation turns out to be highly sensitive to both the concentration of the oxidising agent and the substituents of the aromatic ring. In the final chapter we discuss in detail the consequences of these observations for the mechanism of arylsilane oxidation.

Organometallic compounds derived from tin, boron, and zinc, have been used extensively in transition metal-catalysed cross-coupling, and continue to hold status as the go-to reagents to form new carbon-carbon bonds. Recently, organosilicon compounds have emerged as an attractive alternative to these established reagents, benefitting from low toxicity, low cost, and general ease of handling. While the fundamental reactivity of arylsilane reagents (Ar-SiR3) is well known, their role in transition metal-catalysed reactions is generally less well studied. This thesis comprises an investigation into the effect of ortho-substitution of these arylsilane reagents, and specifically, their application in gold-catalysed direct arylation. In Chapter 2, the transmetalation of these reagents to gold(III) is assessed using a combination of in situ reaction monitoring coupled with kinetic simulations. This allowed a scale of reactivity to be constructed for a range of structurally diverse arylsilanes, and uncovered that more sterically hindered arylsilanes actually exhibit accelerated rates of transmetalation. In Chapter 3, the reactivity of ortho-substituted arylsilanes in gold-catalysed arylation is addressed. The majority of arylsilanes tested in the previous chapter were found to be unable to undergo coupling, despite the viability of transmetalation having been demonstrated. Slight modification of the ortho-substituent, to incorporate a tethered ligand, was found to have a dramatic effect on reactivity, and allowed the coupling of a variety of substrates. The nature of the ligand, as well as the substitution of the tether was found to have a significant impact on the rate of coupling. Chapter 4 describes the way in which the reactivity of ortho-substituted arylsilanes might be exploited in a 'Catch and Release' protocol for catalyst recovery. This aims to combine the established benefits of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis to offer an alternative to current methods of catalyst recycling in industrial chemistry. A number of different 'Catch and Release' mechanisms were considered, and the validity of the concept was demonstrated in a monophasic system.