The first chapter of this dissertation reports the synthesis of highly fluorinated Diels-Alder polyphenylenes. The first section of this chapter describes the three-pot synthesis of a perfluoroarylated bis(cyclopentadienone) monomer. The synthesis begins with the previously reported substitution reaction of decafluorobiphenyl and sodium cyclopentadienide. To the resulting 4,4'-octafluorobiphenylene-linked bis(cyclopentadiene), six perfluoro-4-tolyl groups (three on each of the two cyclopentadienyl moieties) are attached by nucleophilic aromatic substitution (SNAr) reactions. The remaining ring methylenes are subjected to a selenium dioxide-catalyzed oxidation to obtain the desired bis(cyclopentadienone) monomer. The next part of this chapter describes the polymerization of the perfluoroarylated bis-(cyclopentadienone) monomer and bis(4-ethynylphenyl) ether. The reaction affords an oligomer (Mn ~ 14,000 g/mol according to size-exclusion chromatographic analysis) that is soluble in several solvents and that decomposes above about 300°C according to thermogravimetric analysis. The second chapter of this dissertation describes a novel method to oxidize per-fluoroarylated cyclopentadiene compounds to the corresponding ketones using catalytic selenium dioxide and stoichiometric hydrogen peroxide. The first part of this chapter shows the synthesis of some perfluoroarylated cyclopentadiene substrates, while the second part of the chapter explores the oxidation of these compounds along with other perfluoroarylated cyclopentadienes already available within our research group. This chapter also explains how the reactivity of the perfluoroarylated cyclopentadienes under the oxidation conditions depends on their structure. Generally more electron-deficient cyclopentadienes react more readily, while sterically crowded cyclopentadienes react more reluctantly. This third chapter of this dissertation describes the synthesis and characterization of a reversible Diels-Alder polymer from an octafluorobiphenylene-linked bis(cyclopentadiene). In the first section, the synthesis of a reversible homopolymer of the bis(cyclopentadiene) monomer is described. The polymer reaches an optimized molecular weight of 11,000 g/mol (degree of polymerization is 20) under the reaction conditions because there is an equilibrium between polymerization and depolymerization even at the mild polymerization temperature (65°C). The TGA trace of the polymer shows that chain degradation takes place beyond 300°C. The thermal reversibility of the polymer was examined by bulk thermolysis, and flash-vacuum thermolysis. The second section describes the synthesis of a methylated bis(cyclopentadiene) that does not undergo self-polymerization at comparatively lower temperature but instead reacts with a second bis(maleimide) monomer. The resulting polymer typically shows a number-average molecular weight of 15,400 g/mol. This polymerization also is limited by the attainment of steady-state end group concentrations. The reversibility of the polymerization is demonstrated by solution thermolysis experiments in which unmasked cyclopentadiene groups are trapped by a monofunctional maleimide. / Ph. D.

Chemical modification of cellulose has been of growing interest, owing to the abundance and processing challenges of natural cellulose. To date, etherification and esterification are the most effective strategies to modify physicochemical properties of cellulose and append new functionalities. However, they typically require relatively harsh conditions, thus limiting introduction of new functional groups. An alternative strategy to synthesize novel cellulose derivatives is to append a good leaving group to cellulose backbone, followed by nucleophilic substitution reaction. Though tosylation and bromination of cellulose are frequently used, they have drawbacks such as chemo- and regioselectivity issues, high cost, and difficulty in purification. We have successfully developed a method to chemo- and regioselectively chlorinate cellulose esters using MsCl. Compared to bromination of cellulose typically used, this chlorination method has many advantages, including low cost of reagents and ease of separation. The chlorinated cellulose esters are useful intermediates for appending new functionalities by displacement reactions. We have synthesized a library of cellulose ester derivatives by this chlorination/nucleophilic substitution strategy, including cationic and anionic cellulose ester derivatives. These cellulose ester derivatives possess great potentialiii for various applications, including amorphous solid dispersion, tight junction opening, anionic drug delivery, and gas separation membranes. / MS / Cellulose is one of the most abundant natural materials on earth, making up from 30-40% of the weight of every plant on Earth. However, natural cellulose is hard to process into objects for our use, because it can’t be dissolved in water or other simple solvents, and also can’t be melted (it decomposes before it melts). Chemical modification is a useful method to tailor cellulose properties. Conventional methods to do that (making esters and ethers) are limited in scope by harsh reaction conditions. This thesis focuses on investigating a novel strategy to modify cellulose esters and prepare novel cellulose ester derivatives for various applications. Compared to other methods, it shows great potential in industrial applications, because of the low cost of reagents, high efficiency and selectivity, and ease of processing the products. By employing this method, we have prepared different cellulose ester derivatives, with a wide range of future applications, such as in membranes for purifying gases, and for effective drug delivery. Besides cellulose esters, the new method is likely to be suitable for modification of many other natural polysaccharides and their derivatives.

After a general introduction about the properties and preparation of organofluorine compounds (Chapter 1), this thesis is divided into two parts focussing on the development of new methods for C-F bond formation (Part A) as well as studies towards the development of novel fluorinating reagents (Part B). Part A: New Methods for Carbon-Fluorine Bond Formation Part A consists of two chapters outlining the development of a Pd-catalysed hydrofluorination of alkenylarenes (Chapter 2) as well as a halofluorination of alkynes (Chapter 3). Chapter 2 This chapter describes the development of a novel, regioselective, syn-specific hydrofluorination of alkenylarenes under Pd-catalysis leading to the formation of benzylic fluorides. An extensive substrate scope is presented together with a model of the catalytic cycle, based on observations during the development of this reaction, deuterium labelling experiments as well as mechanistic control experiments starting from isolated palladacycles. Chapter 3 In this chapter the development of a novel iodo- as well as bromofluorination of internal and terminal alkynes, leading to the formation of (E)-halofluoroalkenes, is presented. For the former substrate class, the effects of steric as well as electronic bias on regioselectivity are discussed. For the latter substrate class, this methodology could be extended to the corresponding double iodofluorination, and for both transformations it was found to exclusively lead to the fluorination of the internal carbon. An extensive substrate scope as well as different iodofluorination-cross-coupling sequences including Suzuki, Sonogashira and Ullmann couplings, are illustrated. A representative reaction was successfully carried out on gram-scale and an iodofluorination-Suzuki-coupling sequence was used to prepare a fluorinated tamoxifen derivative. Part B: Hydrogen-Bonded Fluoride Complexes as Novel Reagents for Carbon-Fluorine Bond Formation Part B consists of two chapters describing structural as well as reactivity studies of fluoride-alcohol (Chapter 4) and fluoride-urea complexes (Chapter 5). Chapter 4 In this chapter the synthesis of 19 novel hydrogen-bonded tetraalkylammonium fluoride-alcohol complexes is described. For a subset of 15, the solid-state structures as determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction experiments are presented. Trends of reactivity and selectivity were determined using these complexes as sources of fluoride anion in a model SN2 reaction. Preliminary results from in silico modelling of the fluoride-alcohol system provide a basis for explaining the results. Chapter 5 This chapter summarises the synthesis and solid-state structures of 20 hydrogen-bonded fluoride complexes using the urea and related squaramide and amide motifs. Also, the size of the tetraalkylammonium counter-cation was varied to study the influence on the solid-state structure. The reactivity and selectivity of a series of complexes was studied using the same model SN2 reaction as in Chapter 4 and results were compared accordingly. Different UV-vis and NMR spectroscopic techniques were used to study the behaviour of the fluoride-urea system in solution. Preliminary results demonstrate the use of 1,3-diarylureas as organocatalysts for nucleophilic fluorination.

In our earlier work, silica-based diatom frustules were successfully converted to 3-dimesional F-doped titania-based replicas via shape-preserving gas/solid displacement reactions, and experiments showed that the hydrolysis of organophosphorous ester pesticides, methyl paraoxon (MOX) and methyl parathion (MTH) was significantly faster in the presence of these 3-D titania nanostructures than in the presence of other commercial titania nanoparticles. The enhancement effect of titania frustules appeared to be strongly related to the amount of F-doping on these materials. In this work, a wider range of titania frustule replicas with various F-doping were prepared and characterized, and compared in the hydrolysis of MOX and MTH as well as three carboxylic acids (methyl salicylate, methyl benzoate and methyl 4-(aminomethyl)benzoate). A strong relationship between the amount of F-doping and the enhancement effect on the hydrolysis of organophosphorous esters was still observed. However, such enhancement effect did not occur in the hydrolysis of the carboxylic acids. It was discovered that fluorine-leaching from the titania frustules was significant and yielded high concentration of fluoride ions in the reaction solutions. Dissolved fluoride ions alone could significantly catalyze the hydrolysis of organophosphorous esters but not that of carboxylic acids in the oxide-free systems. It is believed that fluoride ions act as nucleophilic catalysts to accelerate the hydrolysis of organophosphorous esters. Comparison in the hydrolysis product formation from the two potential hydrolysis pathways (i.e., the P-O bond and the C-O bond cleavages) in the studied systems also supports the direct involvement of dissolved fluoride ions in the observed catalytic effect.

Gold catalysts have the characteristic of promoting nucleophilic reaction. The cyclization reaction of enediynes catalyzed by gold activated by silver in toluene at 100oC to give 6H-dibenzo[c,h]chromen-6-ones (63), 6H-benzo[c]chromen-6-one (66) and Arnottin I (10) is described. Treatment of enediynes (61¡B65) with 5 mol% of Ph3PAuCl and 10 mol% of AgSbF6 in toluene at 100oC gave 6H-dibenzo[c,h]chromen-6-ones (63) and 6H-benzo[c]chromen-6-one (66) in good yield. In addition to using gold catalyst, electrophilic reagents employed in the reaction caused one cyclization instead of two cyclization. Furthemore, a mechanistic study and GC-MS data showed that the toluene could participate in the reaction. Enediynes (73) can be synthesized by a series of organic synthesis with few steps. Treatment of enediynes (73) with 5 mol% of Ph3PAuCl and 10 mol% of AgSbF6 in toluene at 100oC gave natural product-Arnottin I (10).

he thesis entitled "Theoretical Studies of pie-Facial Selectivity in Organic Reactions" involve a computational examination of a suitable reactivity problem in organic chemistry. Systematic and efficient -procedures have been developed and tested for rationalizing observed face selectivities in numerous substrates. In a number of cases precise transition state structures have also been computed in a rigorous manner. The molecules examined are by and large sterically unbiased. Considerable emphasis has been placed on obtaining general interpretations, In particular, the relative contributions of various sterio electronic and electrostatic effect have been considered in detail.Predictions of a-face selectivities haw also been made in a few cases. In recent years many mildly perturbed substrates have been shown to undergo pie-face selective reactions. Chapter 1 provides a brief review of the available experimental result involving nucleophilic, electrophilic, radical and Diels- Alder reactions.The current status of theoretical understanding of theae rasults is also summarized.The discussion includes qualitative proposal as well as quantitative calculations on selected substrates. The principal goals of the present work and general features of the MO methods used are briefly discussed.

At the threshold of the 21st centry, a new set of challenges is defined by the need to develop sustainable means of preparing chemical commodities demanded by society. Hence, such concepts as atom economy, step economy, and 'green chemistry' have become the requirements for the development of synthetic reactions. Hydrogenation is one of the most powerful catalytic methods which successfully satisfy the stated requirements of modern chemistry. Accordingly, catalytic hydrogenation has been tremendously utilized in industrial settings. The profound impact of hydrogenation portended a powerful approach to reductive carbon-carbon bond formation under hydrogenation conditions, resulting in the discovery of the Fischer-Tropsch process and hydroformylation. However, since this discovery, processes have restricted to the incorporation of a single carbon monoxide unit. Even though there are a few seminal contributions, systematic efforts toward the development of hydrogen-mediated carboncarbon bond forming processes beyond hydroformylation have been absent from the literature. In an exciting advance, the Krische group has shown that it is possible to reductively couple two or more organic molecules simply through their exposure to gaseous hydrogen in the presence of a metal catalyst. This finding has led to the development of a broad, new family of hydrogen-mediated C-C bond formation. Herein, related to hydrogen-mediated C-C bond formation, the overview of metal catalyzed intermolecular reductive coupling in the presence of reducing agents such as borane, silane, alane, metal, and hydrogen is presented. Chapter 2 describes systematic approaches to the development of hydrogen-mediated C-C bond formation and successful preliminary results achieved by our research group. Chapters 3 and 4 will describe the further extension of these hydrogen-mediated C-C bond formations including (1) hydrogen-mediated reductive couplings of conjugated alkynes with iminoacetates, (2) hydrogen-mediated reductive couplings of 1,3-enynes with [alpha]-ketoesters, and (3) hydrogen-mediated multicomponent reductive couplings. The development of catalytic systems for the nucleophilic activation of enones using phosphine catalysts has received attractive attention. Recently, an intramolecular variant of the Rauhut-Currier reaction was developed in our lab. To further extend nucleophilic phosphine catalysis, we have sought to develop new catalytic methodology via phosphine conjugate addition. Chapter 5 describes two new methodologies related to their area: (1) catalytic cycloallylation via nucleophilic phosphine catalysis and (2) allylic amination of Morita-Baylis-Hillman acetates. / text

Loline alkaloids (LA) are secondary metabolites produced by Epichloandamp;euml; (anamorph, Neotyphodium) grass endophytes. They are toxic and deterrent to a broad range of herbivorous insects but not to livestock. This protective bioactivity has spurred considerable research into the LA biosynthetic pathway. LOL, the gene cluster containing nine genes, is required for LA biosynthesis. The regulation of LOL genes during LA production in culture and in symbio is of interest. In this study, coordinate regulation between LOL gene expression and LA production level was investigated in both MM culture and symbiota. Results showed that expression of LOL genes in N. uncinatum MM culture were tightly correlated with each other (p andamp;lt; 0.0005), and all presented a significant temporal quadratic pattern during LA production. Gene expression started before LA were detectable, and increased while LA accumulated. The highest gene expression level was reached before the highest amounts of LA were detected, and gene expression level declined to a very low level after amounts of LA plateaued. Observations suggested that the hierarchical clusters based on the correlation coefficient could help to predict the roles of LOL genes in the LA pathway. In symbiota, coordinate coregulation of LOL gene expression with LA was found in E. festucae-meadow fescue inflorescences and stromata, whereby lower LOL gene expression corresponded with the lower LA level in stromata. In N. uncinatum (or N. siegelii)-meadow fescue vegetative tissues, dramatically higher LA levels were found in younger leaf tissue than in older leaf tissue, yet no evidence was found to relate this difference to LOL gene expression differences. Instead, substrate availability may regulate the LA level. In particular, asparagine was more than 10-fold higher in young leaf tissue than in old tissue, although proline was significantly lower in young tissue. Therefore, different regulatory mechanisms underlie LOL gene expression and LA production in different circumstances. The GUS activity of Pro-lolC2-GUS and Pro-lolA2-GUS in Neotyphodium species was almost undetectable in culture, though the activity could be detected in symbiota. The mRNA of GUS did not exhibit the same pattern as lolC2 or lolA2 in culture during LA production time course. A Pro-lolC2-cre transgene was expressed in complex medium, in which lolC2 mRNA was not detectable. These results suggest that proper regulation of LOL genes in culture or symbiota is dependent on the LOL cluster.

The kinetic substitution reactions of two different sets of mononuclear Platinum(II) complexes with heterocyclic bio-relevant azole nucleophiles, viz. Imidazole (Im), 1-methylimidazole (MIm), 1,2-Dimethylimidazole (DIm), 1,2,4-triazole (Trz) and pyrazole (Pyz). All substitution reactions were studied under pseudo-first order conditions as a function of the incoming nucleophiles concentration and temperature using stopped-flow techniques and UV/Visible spectroscopy. The first set of complexes included the tridentate polypyridine complexes, Pt(II)(2,2:6,2″-terpyridine)Cl]Cl.2H2O, (PtL1) Pt(II)(1,3-di(2-pyridyl)benzene)Cl, (PtL2) Pt(II)(2,6-di-(2’-quinolinyl)pyridine)Cl](Cl), (PtL3) and Pt(II)(1,3-di-(2’-quinolinyl)benzene)Cl (PtL4). The substitution of these complexes with the previously mentioned azoles showed that tuning electronic communication of the Pt(II) centre towards substitution through quinoline moieties has an opposed effect to that obtained through pyridine moieties, and verified that the trans-effect of a phenyl ring is much greater than that of a pyridine ring. The reactivity trend among the complexes was PtL2 > PtL4 > PtL1 > PtL3. Once the nucleophiles were categorised into two groups based on their structural similarities, reactivity trend observed amongst the nucleophiles was generally Im > Pyz > Trz, based on the basicity (electronic effects) and MIm > Im > DIm based on steric effects. The second series of complexes were tridentate [Pt(bis(2-pyridylmethyl)amine)OH2](ClO4)2, Ptdpa and [Pt(bis(2-pyridylmethyl)sulfide)OH2](ClO4)2, Ptdps of which the kinetics were studies in an aqua medium and at constant ionic strength (0.1 M). Ptdps was found to be more reactive (three magnitude higher) than Ptdpa. The rate of substitution of the aqua ligand is dependent on the strength of the σ-donor character and the π-acceptability of the atom situated trans to the leaving group. The observed reactivity for the azoles followed the trend, MIm > Im > DIm > Trz > Pyz. This reactivity trend is in accordance with the basicity, and reflects steric and electrophilic effects of the nucleophiles. This was supported by DFT calculations and the X-ray crystal structure of Ptdps_Cl. For all substitution reactions, the temperature dependent studies showed an associative activation. It is envisaged that the findings of this project will provide useful information for designing new drugs as part of a protracted search of effective anticancer drugs with a wider spectrum. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2014.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Chemistry, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.