Palladium-catalysed synthesis of sulfoxonium ylides

The chemistry of stabilised sulfoxonium ylides in the presence of transition metals has gained in interest over the past few years because of their improved safety profile as compared to their diazo counterparts. However, no general method is available to access α-aryl disubstituted derivatives, limiting the scope of those reactions. This thesis highlights the work done towards the palladium-catalysed synthesis of α-aryl-α-carbonyl sulfoxonium ylides. It includes a thorough review of the literature related to the metal-catalysed reactions with stabilised sulfoxonium ylide in Chapter 1. Chapters 2 and 3 describe the arylation of α-ester and α-keto sulfoxonium ylides, respectively, as well as their use for the formation of C−N and C−S bonds. An experimental study of the mechanism for the reactions with the α-keto derivatives is also detailed demonstrating a different mechanism as compared to when the reaction is carried out with the diazo equivalents