Date of Award
Spring 2011
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Chemistry
First Advisor
Yi, Chae S.
Second Advisor
Donaldson, William A.
Third Advisor
Steinmetz, Mark G.
Abstract
Transition metal catalyzed C-H bond activation reaction is a powerful synthetic method for forming functionalized products directly from unreactive hydrocarbons, and has enormous synthetic potentials for developing chemical processes ranging from petroleum products to pharmaceutical agents. In an attempt to mimic the high stereo selectivity and region selectivity of catalytic reactions by transition metal catalysts, recent research has focused on design and synthesis of transition metal complex and the application on the coupling reactions involving C-H bond activation.
Herein, we wish to report the highly effective coupling reactions involving C-H bond activation by using well-defined ruthenium catalysts. Ruthenium hydride complex was to found to have high activity and selectivity for hydrosilylation, silyl enol ethers formation and enol esters formation reactions. Throughout the course of the mechanistic investigation of the reactions, we found compelling evidence for mechanism of reactions by spectroscopic, structural techniques and computational (DFT) analysis.