Verdazyl radicals are a family of multicoloured stable free radicals. Aside from the defining backbone of four nitrogen atoms, these radicals contain multiple highly modifiable sites that grant them a high degree of derivatization. Despite having been discovered more than half a century ago, limited applications have been found for the verdazyl radicals and little is known about their chemistry. This thesis begins with an investigation to determine whether verdazyl radicals have a future as mediating agents in living radical polymerizations and progresses to their application as substrates for organic synthesis, an application that to date has not been pursued either with verdazyl or nitroxide stable radicals.
The first part of this thesis describes the successful use of the 1,5-dimethyl-3-phenyl-6-oxoverdazyl radical as a mediating agent for styrene and n-butyl acrylate stable free radical polymerizations. The study of other verdazyl derivatives demonstrated the impact of steric and electronic properties of the verdazyl radicals on their ability to mediate polymerizations.
The second part of this thesis outlines the initial discovery and the mechanistic elucidation of the transformation of the 1,5-dimethyl-3-phenyl-6-oxoverdazyl radical into an azomethine imine, which in the presence of dipolarophiles, undergoes a [3+2] 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction to yield unique pyrazolotetrazinone structures. The reactivity of the azomethine imine and the scope of the reaction were also examined.
The third part of this thesis describes the discovery and mechanistic determination of a base-induced rearrangement reaction that transforms the verdazyl-derived pyrazolotetrazinone cycloadducts into corresponding pyrazolotriazinones or triazole structures. The nucleophilicity, or the lack thereof, of the base employed leading to various rearrangement products was examined in detail.
The final part of this thesis demonstrates the compatibility of the verdazyl-initiated cycloaddition and rearrangement reactions with the philosophy of diversity-oriented synthesis in generating libraries of heterocycles. A library of verdazyl-derived heterocycles was generated in a short amount of time and was tested non-specifically for biological activity against acute myeloid leukemia and multiple myeloma cell lines. One particular compound showed cell-killing activity at the 250 mM range, indicating future potential for this chemistry in the field of drug discovery.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/24703 |
| Date | 05 August 2010 |
| Creators | Chen, Eric Kuan-Yu |
| Contributors | Georges, Michael |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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