The development and characterization of N-heterocyclic carbene based catalysts

Includes bibliographical references (p. 154-166).The following body of work is a compilation of five years of research at San Diego State University as well as one year spent working as a fellow in the GK-12 program through the Socrates program at the University of California, San Diego. During that time I focused on creating iridium NHC complexes that featured nitrogen containing ring substituents that showed the possibility of acting as a pendant base. The two heterocyclic substituents on which I focused were derivatives of pyridine and pyrimidine groups attached to an NHC ligand. The ability of the nitrogen to coordinate to the metal center was controlled through the use of sterically bulky groups adjacent to the nitrogen atoms of the pyridine and pyrimidine rings. The resulting metal complexes were studied for their structure, dynamics, and catalytic activity using a variety of experimental systems, with the notable success of cyclizing primary and secondary amines onto alkenes in an intramolecular fashion. For the future work, the two projects that I developed for my assistants, Khoi Le and Ariana Perez, will be covered. For Khoi Le the research goal is to develop tridentate ligands based on my previous NHC research with bi-dentate ligands. These complexes will then be tested for their ability to reduce glycerin, a common by product of saponification, into more commercially interesting molecules. Ariana Perez was tasked with developing nitrogen containing ring systems as metal free catalysts for the refinement of triglycerides into methyl esters for the production of bio-diesel. Her work was based on literature reports of DMAP working as an efficient nucleophilic catalyst. Finally the work that I did as an NSF GK-12 fellow will be covered as well. During that time I was developing my skills in communication and implementing several new laboratory experiments aimed at improving high school students understanding of basic chemistry. Of particular note, I worked on two laboratory experiments that helped to develop the students understanding of electron orbitals and molecular shapes as dictated through bonding. This experience proved to be a great opportunity to not only refine my teaching abilities, but also to see chemistry from a different perspectiv