Giuseppe Mangano
This thesis work aimed to show the potentialities of the organometallic approach and, in particular, the organoalkali one, in Organic Synthesis (whose possibilities cannot be underestimated). A wide opening on the big landscape of possibilities has been reached by the study of functionalization of minimally acidic hydrocarbons with the Schlosser LICKOR superbase. This has allowed selective functionalization of a biphenylic system with different functional groups and the preparation of molecules of interest in catalysis. The study of the organometallic approach in organic synthesis continued with the functionalization of the virtually "no-cost" substrate 1-fluoronaphthalene with a big variety of functional groups like phosphinic, aldehydic, carboxylic, halides etc.. This preliminary study was useful in order to develop a strategy in the preparation of binaphthylic systems, obtained by a method that uses copper (II) as an arene coupling agent. This method was developed in the laboratories of Prof. Schlosser's Group and gave good results in the preparation of molecules that can be used as ligands in Asymmetric Catalysis. A complementary study was done on the possibility of using chloride as a protecting group in metalation to have also access to the functionalization of 1-fluoronaphthalene in positions different from the 2-position derived from an ortho-metalation. The preparation of hydrazines using organoalkali reagents was the other target studied because hydrazines are useful starting materials for Pharmaceuticals. A preliminary study was done using the addition of organolithium reagents to azobisformamides. At the end, after the encouraging results obtained, an unexpected result was obtained on the reactivity of azobisformamides. Pyrazoles are an important class of heterocycles, widely used as drugs for the therapy of various diseases. In particular, the trifluoromethylpyrazoles are a class of substances that show some activity as antiinflammatory drugs or as selective insecticides. The organometallic approach in preparation and functionalization of these substrates again showed its power.
EPFL2004
