Cyclooctyne and cycloocten-5-yne undergo, at room temperature, a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition with dialkyl acetylenedicarboxylates 1a,b to generate furan-derived short-lived intermediates 2, which can be trapped by two additional equivalents of 1a,b or alternatively by methanol, phenol, water or aldehydes to yield polycyclic products 3b–d, orthoesters 4a–c, ketones 5 or epoxides 6a,b, respectively. Treatment of bis(trimethylsilyl) acetylenedicarboxylate (1c) with cyclooctyne leads to the ketone 7 via retro-Brook rearrangement of the dipolar intermediate 2c. In all cases, the products are formed with perfect atom economy.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Ignition of a combustible mixture by a transient jet of hot reactive gas is important for safety of mines, pre-chamber ignition in IC engines, detonation initiation, and in novel constant-volume combustors. The present work is a numerical study of the hot-jet ignition process in a long constant-volume combustor (CVC) that represents a wave-rotor channel. The mixing of hot jet with cold mixture in the main chamber is first studied using non-reacting simulations. The stationary and traversing hot jets of combustion products from a pre-chamber is injected through a converging nozzle into the main CVC chamber containing a premixed fuel-air mixture. Combustion in a two-dimensional analogue of the CVC chamber is modeled using global reaction mechanisms, skeletal mechanisms, and detailed reaction mechanisms for four hydrocarbon fuels: methane, propane, ethylene, and hydrogen. The jet and ignition behavior are compared with high-speed video images from a prior experiment. Hybrid turbulent-kinetic schemes using some skeletal reaction mechanisms and detailed mechanisms are good predictors of the experimental data. Shock-flame interaction is seen to significantly increase the overall reaction rate due to baroclinic vorticity generation, flame area increase, stirring of non-uniform density regions, the resulting mixing, and shock compression. The less easily ignitable methane mixture is found to show higher ignition delay time compared to slower initial reaction and greater dependence on shock interaction than propane and ethylene. The confined jet is observed to behave initially as a wall jet and later as a wall-impinging jet. The jet evolution, vortex structure and mixing behavior are significantly different for traversing jets, stationary centered jets, and near-wall jets. Production of unstable intermediate species like C2H4 and CH3 appears to depend significantly on the initial jet location while relatively stable species like OH are less sensitive. Inclusion of minor radical species in the hot-jet is observed to reduce the ignition delay by 0.2 ms for methane mixture in the main chamber. Reaction pathways analysis shows that ignition delay and combustion progress process are entirely different for hybrid turbulent-kinetic scheme and kinetics-only scheme.

Kleine Moleküle wie Treibhausgase, aber auch Distickstoff und Disauerstoff stehen im Fokus der chemischen Forschung. Solche Moleküle sind durch ihr Vorkommen in der Atmosphäre ubiquitär vorhanden, preiswert und könnten als Synthesebausteine für die Darstellung von komplexeren Molekülen verwendet werden. In dieser Arbeit wurde die Reaktion koordinativ ungesättigter Diketiminato-Nickelkomplexe ([LNi] Komplexe) mit kleinen Molekülen untersucht. Zunächst wurden die Mechanismen der N2-Aktivierung durch reduzierte [LtBuNiI]- und [LMe6NiI] Komplexe miteinander verglichen. Dabei konnte das distickstoffaktivierende Schlüsselintermediat identifiziert und strukturell charakterisiert werden. Weiter wurden die N2-Komplexe [(LtBuNiI)( 1 1 N2)] bzw. K2[(LtBuNiI)( 1 1 N2)], die Vorläufer für [LNiI]- und [LNi0]– Komplexfragmente darstellen, hinsichtlich ihrer Potentials zur Aktivierung der reaktionsträgen Treibhausgase SF6 und NF3 untersucht. Über Reaktionen von Übergangsmetallkomplexen mit NF3 war bis dahin noch nicht berichtet worden; zur Umsetzung von SF6 existierten wenige Publikationen, in denen aber sehr viele mechanistische Fragen offengeblieben sind. Die Mechanismen der SF6- und NF3-Aktivierung wurden durch Kombination einer Vielzahl von ex- und in situ Analysen beleuchtet. Im Falle der SF6 Aktivierung gelang es zudem, ein Nickel(I)-Intermediat zu isolieren. Ein Produkt beider Systeme war der Fluorido-Nickel(II)-Komplex [LtBuNiIIF], dessen Reaktionsverhalten ebenfalls studiert wurde. Doch nicht nur Komplexe mit Nickelatomen in niedrigen Oxidationsstufen erwiesen sich für die Aktivierung kleiner Moleküle geeignet, sondern auch kationische [LtBuNiII(D)]+-Komplexe. Diese Nickel(II)-Komplexe reagierten mit fluorierten Molekülen, N2O sowie O2, was bemerkenswert ist, da Nickel(II)-Komplexe üblicherweise inert gegenüber O2 sind. Im Zuge der O2-Studien wurde ein metastabiler Oranoperoxidkomplex isoliert und strukturell charakterisiert, was beispiellos in der Literatur ist. / Current research focuses on the activation of small molecules like greenhouse gases, thermodynamically stable molecules like N2 and kinetically stabilized molecules like O2, which are all abundant in the atmosphere. Thus, it appears to be alluring to use them as cheap and readily available building blocks for the synthesis of value-added compounds. This dissertation deals with the reaction of low-coordinate diketiminate nickel complexes [LNi] and such small molecules. Initially, the mechanisms of the dinitrogen activation by reduced [LtBuNiI] and [LMe6NiI] complexes were studied. As a result, the key intermediate [(LtBuNiI)x(3 Br)xKx] (x > 1) was identified and structurally characterized. Subsequently, the nickel complexes [(LtBuNiI)( 1 1 N2)] and K2[(LtBuNiI)( 1 1 N2)], which represent sources for [LtBuNiI] and [LtBuNi0]– moieties, were applied to the activation of the inert, but very efficient greenhouse gases SF6 and NF3. Prior to these investigations, no transition metal complex had been reported to react with NF3. Publications dealing with the conversion of SF6 had been scarce, too, while at same time, the mechanisms involving its activation had been speculative. The mechanisms of the NF3 and SF6 activation reactions were deduced combining numerous ex-situ and in situ analytical methods. In case of the SF6 activation, even an intermediate could be isolated. In both systems, the nickel fluoride complex [LtBuNiIIF] was formed and its reaction behaviour was also studied. Furthermore, not only [LtBuNiI]- and [LtBuNi0]– moieties proved to be reactive towards small molecules, but also cationic [LtBuNiII(D)]+ complexes, which were specifically developed for this purpose. The reactions of [LtBuNiII(D)]+ complexes with fluorinated molecules (e. g. PhF, NF3), O2 and N2O were studied. In course of the O2 activation, a metastable organoperoxide complex was isolated and structurally characterized, which is unparalleled in the literature.