Marine ascidian metabolite perophoramidine has since its isolation in 2002 attracted the interest of several research groups. The complex polycyclic structure with vicinal quaternary carbon stereocenters and two amidine functionalities constitutes a formidable synthetic challenge. In this project a new synthetic approach to dehalogenated perophoramidine has been investigated. The vicinal quaternary carbon stereocenters were introduced via a samarium mediated reductive dialkylation, in which the stereochemistry was determined by the metal chelate that formed, as outlined below. Several of the steps suggested in the synthetic approach have been successfully evaluated. Future work is needed to assess the remaining steps of the suggested route to dehalogenated perophoramidine.

This thesis describes synthesis of new chiral N,P ligands and their evaluation in two types of asymmetric transition-metal catalyzed reactions. The first part of the thesis describes studies in iridium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation. A new class of chiral N,P ligands, imidazole-phosphines, was synthesized and evaluated in the Ir-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of olefins (Paper I). The new ligands proved to be highly efficient and enantioselective in the reaction. Because the substrate scope of Ir-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation is still limited to certain types of test substrates, new substrate classes with importance in medicinal and materials chemistry were investigated. Vinyl fluorides were efficiently hydrogenated to fluorine-containing chiral centers by the iridium catalysts with imidazole-phosphine ligands (Paper I). To obtain CF3-bearing chiral centers, we hydrogenated CF3-substituted olefins (Paper II). Ir-catalyzed asymmetric  hydrogenation was highly enantioselective for the functionalized CF3-substituted olefins and the resulting chiral products can be valuable in design of materials such as LCD screens. Ir-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation was also evaluated as a route to diarylmethine chiral centers (Paper III). A wide range of new chiral compounds possessing a diarylmethine chiral center was obtained. The second part of the thesis deals with asymmetric intermolecular Heck reaction utilizing N,P ligands. The N,P ligand class of thiazole-phosphines was evaluated in the Heck reaction (Paper IV) and gave high enantioselectivity. Further, the intermolecular Heck reaction was examined using computational and experimental studies (Paper V). This study led to a better understanding of the enantioselectivity in the reaction.

Chiral molecules play a central role in our daily life and in nature, for instance the different enantiomers or diastereomers of a chiral molecule may show completely different biological activity. For this reason, it is a vital goal for synthetic chemists to design selective and efficient methodologies that allow the synthesis of the desired enantiomer. In this context, it is highly important that the concept of green chemistry is considered while designing new approaches that eventually will provide more environmental and sustainable chemical synthesis.The aim of this thesis is to develop the concept of combining transition metal catalysis and aminocatalysis in one process (dual catalysis). This strategy would give access to powerful tools to promote reactions that were not successful with either transition metal catalyst or the organocatalyst alone. The protocols presented in this thesis based on organocatalytic transformations via enamine or iminium intermediates or both, in combination with transition metal catalysis, describes new enantioselective organocatalytic procedures that afford valuable compounds with high chemo- and enantioselectivity from inexpensive commercial available starting materials. In paper I, we present a successful example of dual catalysis: the combination of transition metal activation of an electrophile and aminocatalyst activation of a nucleophile via enamine intermediate. In paper II, the opposite scenario is presented, here the transition metal activates the nucleophile and the aminocatalyst activates the electrophile via an iminium intermediate. In paper III,we present a domino Michael/carbocyclisation reaction that is catalysed by a chiral amine (via iminium/enamine activation) in combination with a transition metal catalysts activation of an electrophile. In paper IV, the concept of dual catalysis was further extended and applied for the highly enantioselective synthesis of valuable structural scaffolds, namely poly-substituted spirocyclic oxindoles. Finally, in paper V the concept of dual catalysis was expanded, by investigating more challenging and environmentally benign processes, such as the successful combination of a heterogeneous palladium and amine catalysts for the highly enantioselective synthesis of functionalised cyclopentenes, containing an all carbonquaternary stereocenter, dihydrofurans and dihydropyrrolidines.