Deuteration is the replacement of a hydrogen atom by deuterium atom in a molecule. The replacement begins at the most acidic hydrogen in the molecule. In ATP, the deshielded hydrogen is C8-H which is the first replaced during deuteration. During ATP deuteration some of the ATP is hydrolysed to ADP concurrently. Using kinetic analysis, it was confirmed that the ATP hydrolysis that occurs is 1st order in ATP concentration, while the hydrogen replacement is 2nd order. The ATP and its C8 deuterated analogue were tested against three enzymes shikimate kinase (SK), acetate kinase (AK) and glutamine synthetase (GS) to determine if a kinetic isotope effect (KIE) exists in these systems. With AK and GS, the KIED increased as the KIEH decreased, while with SK the KIED decreased as the KIEH increased as the concentration of the ATP or deuterated analogue increased. Deuteration of imidazole and purine compounds reduced the specific activity of AK or SK at low concentrations in an enzyme-catalysed reaction. From a library of imidazole-containing compounds that inhibited SK, three compounds were selected and their IC50 values were determined on the SK-catalysed reaction. These compounds show a differential potency and efficiency between their protonated and deuterated analogues when compared in a 1:1 mixture. Synthesized purines incorporating three different substituents at N-9 were tested against AK or SK for their ability to lower the specific activity of the enzymes used / Physics / M. Sc. (Physics)

Nature has always remained a constant source of inspiration for chemists for synthesizing natural products, mimicking enzymatic reactions or to construct molecular architectures resembling biological assemblies. With the rapid growth of ‘Supramolecular Chemistry’ along with the advancement of the synthetic methodologies, molecular systems with brand new complexities have been synthesized, alongside the efficacy of weak, reversible non-covalent interactions have also been extensively explored. A number of such forces including hydrogen bonding, solvophobic effect, dynamic covalent interactions and metal-ligand coordination have been exploited to assemble the molecular building blocks and stitch them together to construct discrete ‘self-assembled’ architectures integrated with desired functionalities. Metal-ligand coordination driven self-assembly certainly evolved as one of the most successful approaches for the construction of discrete supramolecular architectures during last two and half decades. The high directionality and reversible nature of certain metal-ligand bonds allow the pre-designing of sophisticated architectures which can be successfully obtained by ‘error corrections’ via a thermodynamically controlled self-assembly process. Numerous aesthetically elegant two dimensional (2D) and three dimensional (3D) metallosupramolecular architectures have been constructed which have been studied for various potential applications including guest encapsulation, catalysis, sensing, optoelectronics, drug delivery, protection of reactive species etc. Construction of such molecular architectures uses symmetric and rigid building blocks which strictly preserves their geometrical coding and thus finally determines the fate of the self-assembly. Pyridyl-based donors have been extensively used due to their well-behaved coordination with transition metal ions. Interestingly, imidazole based donors remained almost unexplored for such purpose mainly due to the rotational flexibility of imidazole moieties owing to the lack of -electron delocalization with the aromatic backbone, which makes pre-designing an architecture extremely difficult. However, this unpredictability can lead to the formation of unprecedented molecular architectures. Furthermore, the conventional rigid ‘acceptors’ used in the ‘directional bonding approach’ always results in the formation of rigid assemblies, which cannot be utilized for the construction of smart molecular machine based applications. In this context, incorporation of restricted rigidity in the building blocks can be a convenient approach to construct versatile and flexible supramolecular architectures. Although flexible donors are quite common in coordination-driven self-assembly, the use of flexible metal acceptor is scarcely Highly symmetric spherical assemblies of square planer Pd(II) and Pt(II) ions are one of the most extensively studied metallosupramolecular architectures owing to their topological similarity with the spherical virus capsids. Unfortunately, none of the reported molecular spheres are soluble in water which restricts their applications in aqueous media. On the other hand, most of the metallosupramolecular architectures cannot be used for redox based applications as the oxidation state of the associated metal ions must be kept unaltered. Although, assemblies constructed mainly by the ferrocene containing acceptors are shown to be exhibiting redox property, the donor inherited redox active metallosupramolecular systems are extremely rare. Discrete 3D metallosupramolecular cages have been extensively studied as synthetic hosts where the hydrophobic pockets have been utilized as safe shelter for reactive species, for catalyzing chemical transformations, tuning electronic and optical properties of guest molecules, as delivery vehicle for drug molecules etc. However, a major drawback of many such 3D cages is associated with their closed-shell topology, where the large cavities are accessible though relatively much smaller apertures which prevent larger guest molecules to enter inside. So, an interesting finding in this field would be to construct molecular hosts with larger apertures. Picric acid (PA) is a strong organic acid and like many other polynitroaromatic compounds, it is a powerful explosive. In addition, it has large scale industrial application for the synthesis of dyes and pharmaceuticals. However, PA has potential health hazards and it is a water pollutant owing to its high aqueous solubility. Thus, the development of selective receptors which can efficiently interact with PA and detect it at very lower concentration is an appealing field of research. Chapter 1 briefly discusses the history of supramolecular chemistry and the concept of ‘self-assembly’ along with the several synthetic methodologies for the construction of discrete supramolecular architectures. It also includes a brief discussion on the various design approaches to construct 2D and 3D molecular architectures by metal-ligand coordination which is followed by an account on some of the important applications of such metallosupramolecular architectures. At the end, a small introduction on the fluorescence-based detection techniques for PA has also been included. Chapter 2A accounts for the exploration of two linearly substituted benzene bisimidazole donors L1 and L2 for coordination-driven self-assembly. L1 and L2 possesses different ‘natural’ donor angles as the imidazole moieties in L2 are twisted heavily with respect to the phenyl plane due to the steric hindrance exerted by the methyl groups. Interestingly, while the self-assembly of L1 with [cis-(tmeda)Pd(NO3)2] (tmeda = N,N,Nꞌ,Nꞌ-tetramethylethane-1,2-diamine) exclusively formed a [3+3] molecular triangle, the self-assembly of L2 yielded a [4+4] molecular square as the major product with the same acceptor. In addition, similar treatment with the analogous Pt(II) acceptor resulted mixtures of [3+3] and [4+4] assemblies in both cases; however, the [3+3] assembly was the major product in case of L2. These contradictory product distributions in case of L2 with analogous Pd(II) and Pt(II) acceptors could be corroborated by the delicate balance between the entropic and enthalpic contributions. Scheme 1. Self-assembly of L1/L2 with [cis-(tmeda)Pd(NO3)2] and [cis-(tmeda)Pt(NO3)2], respectively. Furthermore, the reactions of L1 and L2 with a 0º bisplatinum acceptor, viz. AntPt yielded the expected [2+2] macrocycles (8 and 9), respectively. However, the interesting observations Scheme 2. Self-assemblies of L1 and L2 with the 0º bisplatinum acceptor AntPt. obtained from the variable temperature NMR studies suggested the existence of a mixture of inter-convertible conformational isomeric structures of 9. Chapter 2B describes the synthesis of a novel semi-rigid bisplatinum acceptor bisPt-NO3 based on benzil backbone for the construction of flexible metallamacrocycles. The benzil group was selected due to its unique rotational flexibility along the benzyl C-C bond which can generate a wide range of bite angles to make it compatible with the variety of donors of diverse shapes and sizes. The acceptor was successfully self-assembled with four different bisimidazole donors (L1-L4) to yield corresponding [2+2] metallamacrocycles (M1-M4) which were characterized by multinuclear NMR and ESI-MS spectrometry; and their structures were elucidated by semi-empirical geometry optimizations. Scheme 3. Self-assembly of [2+2] metallamacrocycles M1-M4 by a semi-rigid bisplatinum acceptor bisPt-NO3. Chapter 3 discusses the synthesis of the very first example of a water soluble molecular sphere MC-1 by the self-assembly of square planar Pd(II) ions with a flexible cationic tritopic donor La(NO3)3 containing 4,4-bispyridyl arms. The structural flexibility of La(NO3)3 makes it capable of binding with metal ions in its syn- or anti-conformations which was also experimentally observed in the structures of the three newly synthesized coordination polymers, viz. Ag-CP, Zn-CP and Cd-CP constructed by using La(NO3)3 as (co)ligand. Finally, the 4:3 self-assembly of [La(NO3)3] and Pd(NO3)2 in aqueous media produced the desired M6L8 type Scheme 4. Self-assembly of the water soluble molecular dice MC-1 from the tricationic tritopic donor La(NO3)3. molecular sphere- MC-1, which contain 36+ overall charges. The compound could be easily solubilized in water after isolation as solid by simple stirring at room temperature. Single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis (SCXRD) revealed the ‘dice’-shaped architecture of MC-1 where the eight faces are occupied by the coordinated Pd2+ ions and the bispyridyl arms and the vertices are occupied by mesityl moieties. MC-1 is stable in aqueous media, however disintegrates in DMSO, as observed by variable temperature NMR experiments. In addition, MC-1 also produced ligand inherited redox signals in cyclic voltammetry experiments. Chapter 4 describes the synthesis of a novel non-symmetric tetraimidazole donor L based on carbazole backbone. The complexity of the donor is associated with the allowed free rotation of the imidazole moieties along with the non-symmetric nature of the carbazole backbone which make L a very unusual donor for coordination-driven self-assembly. The crystal structure of L showed that the presence of the N-Me group caused a greater twisting of the nearby imidazole moieties with respect to the other set of imidazole moieties. The self-assembly of L with [cis-(en)Pd(NO3)2] (en = ethane-1,2-diamine) yielded a mixture of M4L8 and M6L12 type self-assembled products, as evidenced from the ESI-MS spectrometry. However, the DOSY NMR spectra of the product showed a single diffusion coefficient for all the peaks, indicating that both type of assemblies have similar size and hence suggested the formation of a tetrafacial barrel and a cubic architecture. A similar self-assembly of L with [cis-(tmeda)Pd(NO3)2] also produced a water soluble product. ESI-MS spectra in this case only confirmed the formation of a M4L8 assembly- MB-1. SCXRD analysis of the coronene encapsulated complex of MB-1 gave more insights on the sophisticated non-symmetric tetrafacial barrel architecture of MB-1 with large Scheme 5. Construction of the water soluble molecular barrel MB-1 by the self-assembly of a non-symmetric tetraimidazole donor L. rectangular apertures. The centrosymmetric molecule can encapsulate two aromatic guest molecules inside its hydrophobic cavity and was found to be efficiently encapsulating polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in aqueous media. In addition, MB-1 has been successfully exploited to carry water insoluble perylene molecule inside HeLa cells for fluorescence imaging purpose without showing significant toxicity. L also formed a water insoluble tetrafacial barrel (MB-2) by self-assembly with [cis-(dppf)Pd(OTf)] (dppf=diphenylphosphino ferrocene) which interestingly has a symmetrical architecture, as evidenced from the SCXRD analysis. The formation of the symmetrical barrel is driven by the steric hindrance between the bulky phenyl groups of the nearby dppf moieties. Chapter 5 reports the study of interactions between picric acid (PA) with a few newly synthesized fluorescent imidazolium salts (S1-S3). The fluorescence titration study of the positively charged receptors with PA showed rapid decrease of the corresponding fluorescence intensities upon gradual addition of PA. The Stern-Volmer plots suggested the involvement of both static and dynamic quenching mechanisms which was further supported by fluorescence lifetime measurements, NMR and UV-Vis spectroscopic analyses. The values of the Stern-Volmer constants (Ksv) reflected strong receptor-PA binding. The quenching efficiency calculations in the presence of several other analytes proved that the receptors are highly selective for PA in both aqueous and non-aqueous media. The mode of interactions in solid state was investigated by the crystal structure analysis of the [S1PA] complex. 1H NMR spectra of the same complex indicated strong interaction between the imidazolium moieties of the receptor Scheme 6. The fluorescent imidazolium salts based receptors S1-S3 and the florescence titration plot for S1 with PA. Inset: the solutions of S1 and (S1+PA) in DMSO under UV light. with PA in solution; however, no significant interaction of PA with the anthracene moieties was observed in solution as we well as in the solid state. Also the quenching efficiencies and the Ksv values were correlated with the positive charge(s) present on the receptors with the help of two newly synthesized mono-positive receptors S4 and S5.

Die vorliegende Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit der Synthese, der Charakterisierung und der Anwendung neuartiger Phosphane in homogenkatalytischen Reaktionen. Dabei wurden die Ferrocenyl- und Ferrocenylethinylphosphan-Palladium und Ferrocenylethinylphosphan-Ruthenium Komplexe in der Palladium-vermittelten Mizoroki-Heck- und Suzuki-Miyaura-Reaktion sowie der Ruthenium-katalysierten Synthese von β-Oxopropylestern verwendet. Der Schwerpunkt lag dabei auf der Untersuchung des Einflusses der elektronischen und räumlichen Eigenschaften der Phosphanliganden auf die Aktivität und Produktivität der entsprechenden Katalysatoren in den homogenkatalytischen Reaktionen. Weiterhin beschäftigt sich die vorliegende Arbeit mit der Synthese und Charakterisierung von funktionalisierten (Phosphino)Imidazol und (Phosphino)Imidazolium Salzen und deren Anwendung in der Suzuki-Miyaura-Reaktion. Dabei wurde neben der Untersuchung des Einflusses der Position der Phosphanylgruppe und der unterschiedlichen Substituenten ebenfalls die Auswirkung von elektronenziehenden und -schiebenden Gruppen am Phosphanrest untersucht. Die neutralen Mono- und Diphosphane wurden außerdem in der Kreuzkupplung von Arylhalogeniden und in der Synthese räumlich anspruchsvoller Biaryle verwendet. Des Weiteren wurden die (Phosphino)Imidazolium-Salze als Liganden in der Suzuki-Miyaura-Reaktion in ionischen Flüssigkeiten als Reaktionsmedium angewendet, um die Möglichkeit des Recyclings der Katalysatorphase zu untersuchen.

Die vorliegende Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit der Synthese, der Charakterisierung und der Anwendung neuartiger Phosphane in homogenkatalytischen Reaktionen. Dabei wurden die Ferrocenyl- und Ferrocenylethinylphosphan-Palladium und Ferrocenylethinylphosphan-Ruthenium Komplexe in der Palladium-vermittelten Mizoroki-Heck- und Suzuki-Miyaura-Reaktion sowie der Ruthenium-katalysierten Synthese von β-Oxopropylestern verwendet. Der Schwerpunkt lag dabei auf der Untersuchung des Einflusses der elektronischen und räumlichen Eigenschaften der Phosphanliganden auf die Aktivität und Produktivität der entsprechenden Katalysatoren in den homogenkatalytischen Reaktionen. Weiterhin beschäftigt sich die vorliegende Arbeit mit der Synthese und Charakterisierung von funktionalisierten (Phosphino)Imidazol und (Phosphino)Imidazolium Salzen und deren Anwendung in der Suzuki-Miyaura-Reaktion. Dabei wurde neben der Untersuchung des Einflusses der Position der Phosphanylgruppe und der unterschiedlichen Substituenten ebenfalls die Auswirkung von elektronenziehenden und -schiebenden Gruppen am Phosphanrest untersucht. Die neutralen Mono- und Diphosphane wurden außerdem in der Kreuzkupplung von Arylhalogeniden und in der Synthese räumlich anspruchsvoller Biaryle verwendet. Des Weiteren wurden die (Phosphino)Imidazolium-Salze als Liganden in der Suzuki-Miyaura-Reaktion in ionischen Flüssigkeiten als Reaktionsmedium angewendet, um die Möglichkeit des Recyclings der Katalysatorphase zu untersuchen.:Table of Contents Bibliographische Beschreibung und Referat ii Präambel iii Table of Contents 1 List of Abbreviations 5 A Introduction 9 1 Homogeneous Catalysis 9 2 References 11 B State of Knowledge 13 1 Transition Metal-Catalyzed C,C Cross-Coupling Reactions 13 2 Mizoroki-Heck Reaction 16 3 Suzuki-Miyaura Reaction 23 4 β-Oxopropyl Ester Synthesis 29 5 Ferrocenyl Phosphines in C,C Cross-Coupling Reactions 33 6 Phosphino Imidazoles and their Application in C,C Cross-Coupling Reactions 35 7 Motivation 36 8 References 37 C Metallocenyl Phosphine Palladium Dichlorides: Synthesis, Electrochemistry and their Application in C,C Coupling Reactions 44 1 Introduction 44 2 Results and Discussion 45 2.1 Ligand Synthesis and Properties 45 2.2 Electrochemistry 47 2.3 Single Crystal X-ray Structure Determination 51 2.4 Catalytic Investigations 55 2.4.1 Mizoroki-Heck Catalysis 55 2.4.2 Suzuki-Miyaura Catalysis 56 3 Conclusions 58 4 Experimental Section 60 4.1 General Data 60 4.2 Instruments 60 4.3 Electrochemistry 60 4.4 Spectro-electrochemistry 61 4.5 Materials 61 4.6 General Procedure for the Synthesis of Phosphines 3 and 6 61 4.7 General Procedure for the Synthesis of the Seleno Phosphines 4 and 7 65 4.8 General Procedure for the Synthesis of the Palladium Complexes 9a – e and 10a – d 69 4.9 General Procedure for the Mizoroki-Heck Reaction 72 4.10 General Procedure for the Suzuki-Miyaura Reaction 73 4.11 Crystal Data for 4b 73 5 Supporting Information 73 6 Acknowledgement 77 7 References 77 D Fundamental Study of (Ferrocenylethynyl)phosphines: Correlation of Steric and Electronic Effects in C,C Cross-Coupling Reactions 81 1 Introduction 81 2 Results and Discussion 82 2.1 Synthesis, Reaction Chemistry and Characterization 82 2.2 C,C Cross-Coupling Reactions 95 2.2.1 Suzuki-Miyaura Reaction 95 2.2.2 Mizoroki-Heck Reaction 96 3 Conclusions 97 4 Experimental Section 99 4.1 General Data and Materials 99 4.2 Instruments 99 4.3 Electrochemistry 100 4.4 Spectro-electrochemistry 100 4.5 General Procedure for the Synthesis of Phosphines 3b – f 101 4.6 General Procedure for the Synthesis of Seleno Phosphines 4b – f 104 4.7 General Procedure for the Synthesis of Palladium Complexes 6e, 6f and 7a – f 106 4.8 Synthesis of [PdCl2(P(C≡CFc)(Cy)2)2][B(C6F5)4]2 ([7f][(B(C6F5)4)]2) 110 4.9 General Procedure for the Suzuki-Miyaura Reaction 110 4.10 General Procedure for the Mizoroki-Heck Reaction 110 4.11 Crystal Structure Determination 111 5 Supporting Information 112 6 Acknowledgement 114 7 References 114 E (Ethynylferrocenyl)phosphine Ruthenium Complexes in Catalytic β-Oxopropyl Benzoate Formation 119 1 Introduction 119 2 Experimental Section 120 2.1 General Procedure and Materials 120 2.2 General Procedure for the Synthesis of Ruthenium Complexes 3a – 3e and 10 121 2.3 Synthesis of (Et2N)P(C≡C-PPh2)2 (6) 124 2.4 Synthesis of P(C≡CFc)(C≡CPPh2)2 (9) 124 2.5 Synthesis of (RuCl2(η6-p-cymene))(FcC≡C)P(C≡CPPh2(RuCl2(η6-p-cymene)))2 (10) 125 2.6 General Procedure for the Catalytic Reactions 125 2.7 Crystal Structure Determination 126 3 Results and Discussion 127 4 Conclusions 135 5 Supporting Information 135 6 Acknowledgement 135 7 References 136 F Phosphino Imidazoles and Imidazolium Salts for Suzuki-Miyaura C,C Coupling Reactions 138 1 Introduction 138 2 Results and Discussion 139 2.1 Synthesis 139 2.2 Characterization 143 2.3 Catalysis 148 3 Conclusions 152 4 Experimental Section 154 4.1 General Procedures 154 4.2 Synthesis of 1-(4-iodophenyl)-4,5-dimethyl-1H-imidazole (3b) 155 4.3 Synthesis of 1-(4-ferrocenylphenyl)-1H-imidazole (5) 156 4.4 Synthesis of 1-(4-(ethynylferrocenyl)phenyl)-1H-imidazole (7) 156 4.5 Synthesis of 1-(4-(1,1’-biphenyl))-4,5-dimethyl-1H-imidazole (9) 157 4.6 General Synthesis Procedure for Phosphines 11a – f 157 4.7 General Procedure for the Synthesis of Seleno Phosphines 11a-Se – f-Se 165 4.8 General Procedure for the Synthesis of Imidazolium Salts 16a – 16d 169 4.9 Synthesis of 1-phenyl-2-(diphenylphosphino)-3-n-octyl-4,5-dimethyl-1H-imidazolium hexafluorophosphate (17a) 171 4.10 Synthesis of 1-phenyl-2-(dicyclohexylphosphino)-3-n-octyl-4,5-dimethyl-1H-imidazolium hexafluorophosphate (17b) 172 4.11 Synthesis of [(1-(4-Br-C6H4)-cC3H2N2-3-n-Bu)2PdI2] (19) 173 4.12 Synthesis of 1-(4-(diphenylphosphino)phenyl)-3-n-octyl-4,5-dimethyl-1H-imidazolium hexafluorophosphate (20) 173 4.13 General Procedure for the Suzuki-Miyaura Reaction 174 4.14 General Procedure for the Suzuki-Miyaura Reaction in Ionic Liquids 175 4.16 General Procedure for the Synthesis of Sterically Hindered Biaryls 175 4.17 Crystal Structure Determination 176 5 Supporting Information 177 6 Acknowledgement 180 7 References 180 G Imidazole Phosphines: Synthesis, Reaction Chemistry and Their Use in Suzuki-Miyaura C,C Cross-Coupling Reactions 184 1 Introduction 184 2 Results and Discussion 185 2.1 Synthesis and Characterization of Phosphino Imidazoles and Metallamacrocycles 185 2.2 Suzuki-Miyaura C,C Cross-Coupling Reactions 193 3 Conclusions 196 4 Experimental Section 197 4.1 General Procedures 197 4.2 Synthesis of 1-(4-(diphenylphosphino)phenyl)-4,5-dimethyl-1H-imidazole (4a) 198 4.3 Synthesis of 1-(4-(dicyclohexylphosphino)phenyl)-4,5-dimethyl-1H-imidazole (4b) 199 4.4 General Synthesis Procedure for Phosphines 6a – f 199 4.5 Synthesis of [Pd(1-(4-PPh2-C6H4)-2-PFur2-4,5-Me2-1H-C3N2)Cl2]2 (8) 204 4.6 Synthesis of [Pt(dppf)(C≡C-C6H4-4-PPh2)2] (11) 204 4.7 Synthesis of [Pt(dppf)(C≡C-C6H4-4-PPh2)2PtCl2)]2 (13) 205 4.8 General Procedure for the Suzuki-Miyaura Reaction 205 4.9 General Procedure for the Suzuki-Miyaura Coupling of Aryl Chlorides 206 4.10 General Procedure for the Synthesis of Sterically Hindered Biaryls 206 4.11 Crystal Structure Determination 206 5 Acknowledgement 207 6 Supporting Information 208 7 References 208 H Summary 211 Acknowledgement/Dank 219 Publications, Oral Presentations, Poster 220 Publications 220 Oral Presentations 221 Posters 221 Curriculum Vitae 223 Selbstständigkeitserklärung 224 Appendix 225

Настоящая работа состоит из 3 глав и посвящена бесферментному количественному определению креатинина, глюкозы, мочевины с использованием медь(II)-имидазольных каркасов. В ходе работы проведено формирование электрокаталитически активного слоя на поверхности рабочего электрода. Таким образом, каталитически активный слой с наибольшей чувствительностью сформирован на печатном электроде 3-в-1 с использованием многостенных углеродных нанотрубок (cMWCNT), электроосаждённым золотом и медь(II)-имидазольного каркаса, состоящего из иона меди(II) и 2-меркаптоимидазола и 2-метилимидазола. Проведены исследования селективности полученного каталитически активного слоя. / This work consists of 3 chapters and is devoted to the enzyme-free quantitative determination of creatinine, glucose, urea using copper(II)-imidazole frameworks. In the course of the work, the formation of an electrocatalytically active layer on the surface of the working electrode was carried out. Thus, the catalytically active layer with the highest sensitivity is formed on a 3-in-1 printed electrode using multi-walled carbon nanotubes (cMWCNT) electrodeposited with gold and copper(II)-imidazole framework consisting of copper(II) ion and 2-mercaptoimidazole and 2-methylimidazole. The selectivity of the obtained catalytically active layer has been studied.