Catalytic Functionalization of Allylic Substrates by Palladium Pincer Complexes

This thesis is based on the development of novel catalytic reactions for the synthesis and application of organometallic reagents. The main focus is directed towards organoboronate derivatives. We developed an efficient procedure for converting allylic alcohols to the corresponding allylboronates using palladium pincer complexes as catalysts. The reactions were performed under mild conditions with high selectivity, allowing further one-pot transformations. Using this approach, a variety of stereodefined homoallylic alcohols and amino acid derivatives were synthesized via trapping of the in situ generated allylboronate derivatives with an appropriate electrophile. The synthetic scope of these types of multi-component reactions is broad as many different substrate allylic alcohols may be used together with various electrophiles. Several aspects of these reactions were studied, including different reagents, catalysts and electrophiles. Furthermore, we studied the possibility to use oxidizing reagents as an essential component in the functionalization of olefins. Two main strategies were utilized for these catalytic methods using palladium pincer complexes. The functional group was either transferred from the oxidizing reagent, or introduced via an oxidation-transmetallation route. We propose that both methods involve palladium(IV) intermediates thus expanding both the coordination sphere of palladium and the synthetic scope of pincer complex catalysis.At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 11: In press