Reaction intermediate | EPFL Graph Search

In chemistry, a reaction intermediate or an intermediate is a molecular entity that is formed from the reactants (or preceding intermediates) but is consumed in further reactions in stepwise chemical reactions that contain multiple elementary steps. Intermediates are the reaction product of one elementary step, but do not appear in the chemical equation for an overall chemical equation. For example, consider this hypothetical stepwise reaction: :A + B -> C + D The reaction includes two elementary steps: :A + B -> X :X -> C + D In this example, X is a reaction intermediate. IUPAC definition The IUPAC Gold Book defines an intermediate as a compound that has a lifetime greater than a molecular vibration that is formed (directly or indirectly) from the reactants and reacts further to give (either directly or indirectly) the products of a chemical reaction. The lifetime condition distinguishes true, chemically distinct intermediates from vibrational states or such transition s

Copper-Catalyzed 1,2-Methoxy Methoxycarbonylation of Alkenes with Methyl Formate and Synthetic Studies Towards the Total Synthesis of Koumine, Voacafricine A and Voacafricine B

Balázs Budai

The development of an unusual oxidative alkene difunctionalization using methyl formate and syn-thetic studies towards alkaloid natural products provide the basis of the thesis. The first chapter details the development of a method that forges methoxycarbonyl radical direct-ly from its most accessible precursor: methyl formate. Although the aforementioned transfor-mation was documented in the literature, no synthetically useful method was developed at the time. We were able to identify conditions that transform methyl formate and simple styrene de-rivatives to value added ï¢-methoxy alkanoates and cinnamic acid derivatives under copper cataly-sis. We also demonstrated that by tethering nucleophilic moieties to the styrene substrates, we could access medicinally important heterocycles such as pyrrolidines, tetrahydrofurans and ï§-lactones. Our method proved to be scalable on each classes of substrates. Mechanistic studies re-vealed that methyl formate has an unprecedented double role in the transformation. It acts as a precursor for methoxycarbonyl radical; furthermore, it is the direct source of the ï¢-methoxy func-tion in the synthesis of ï¢-methoxy alkanoates. A ternary ï¢-diketiminato-Cu(I)-styrene complex, fully characterized by NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallographic analysis is capable of catalyz-ing the same transformation. We hypothesize that pre-coordination of electron-rich double bond to copper might play an important role in the polarity-mismatched addition between nucleophilic methoxycarbonyl radical and electron rich olefins. Synthetic studies toward the total synthesis of koumine is discussed in the second chapter. Our synthetic strategy features an oxidative ring closing, Fukuyama indole synthesis and an enantiose-lective Diels-Alder cycloaddition for the construction of the core of koumine skeleton. We designed a rapid route to access 1,2-dihydropyridine derivatives and these compounds were examined as dienes in the Diels-Alder cycloaddition reaction. Despite our efforts, we were unable to effect the [4+2] cycloaddition, which eventually lead us to decide to discontinue our campaign. In chapter three, our synthetic efforts toward voacafricine A and voacafricine B is presented. In our pursuit towards the natural products, we devised and followed a divergent and potentially en-antioselective strategy. We successfully developed a synthetic route to reach the key intermediate in five steps. Despite our efforts, we were not able to construct the remaining F ring of the natural product. Our conformational analysis of advanced intermediates suggest that epimerization of the C14 stereocenter potentially unlocks the desired reactivity and enables us to reach the target mol-ecules. Work towards the total synthesis of voacafricine A and voacafricine B is underway and may focus on the conformational manipulation of advanced intermediates to allow the elaboration of the F ring and complete the synthesis.

EPFL2020

Molecular Engineering of Electrode Surfaces for Electrocatalysis

Patrick Eduard Alexa

Electrocatalysts play an important part on the route towards environmental friendly energy sources. They support modern technologies like fuel cells to move further away from the utilization of fossil fuels and the resulting CO2 emission into our atmosphere. The main principle of such energy conversion technologies is to store chemical energy within chemical bonds and to release it as electric energy to fulfill the energy demand of today's society. However energy conversion chemistry in such technologies requires catalysts in order to be effective by providing an alternative reaction pathway that lowers activation energies and maximizes the energy output. Providing suitable catalyst surfaces requires a fundamental knowledge of the interaction of reactants and reaction intermediates with the catalyst surfaces. This concern is addressed in this thesis by fabricating specifically tailored molecular components on metal surfaces, which act as organic/inorganic hybrid electrodes for various energy conversion reactions in electrocatalysis. Characterizing the electrode surface is crucial in order to identify active sites of the catalyst. The molecular structure is investigated by surface sensitive techniques, such as STM and XPS in combination with a home-build transfer system, which enables electrode fabrication in UHV and electrocatalytic experiments in a liquid environment. A detailed characterization of organic polymer components on electrode surfaces is obtained by combining experimental data with MD simulations. The morphology of polymer networks can be successfully mimicked and depending on the chemical composition and the structure, spatial correlations on short length scales are reported. Hybrid electrodes with organic polymer co-catalysts reveal an increased catalytic activity for the HER by providing suitable docking sites that act as catalytic active sites. Reactants and reaction intermediates are stabilized via hydrogen bonding, which results in a higher catalytic turnover. The specific designed structure of the organic co-catalyst helps to identify a fraction of the reaction mechanism and highlights the importance of molecular components in electrocatalysis. The utilization of organic units on electrocatalysts provides also an excellent opportunity in order to use single metal atoms as catalysts. Engineering large pi-systems has no significant impact on the ORR activity, while the distance between active sites and the underlying electrode are crucial for enhancing the catalytic activity. A significant factor in using molecular components in electrocatalysis is the stability of the organics. Using electrografting allows to design organic/inorganic hybrid electrodes with covalent bonds between the molecular component and the metal substrate. Attaching empty porphyrin molecules to substrates introduces a powerful technique in molecular engineering, since empty porphyrin cycles can be metallized with various metal centers that can act as electrocatalysts for different electrochemical reactions. In summary, this thesis provides multiple engineering aspects, which are useful in designing molecular components on metal electrodes for energy conversion. Such hybrid catalyst surfaces are capable of improving the catalytic activity and allow to study the mechanism of catalytic reactions. Implementing organic components provides new routes for tailoring novel materials, which deliver new insight into the complex field of electrocatalysis.

EPFL2020

Efficient Kinetic Resolution of Sulfur-Stereogenic Sulfoximines by Exploiting (CpRhIII)-Rh-X-Catalyzed C-H Functionalization

Marcus Brauns, Nicolai Cramer

Chiral sulfoximines with stereogenic sulfur atoms are promising motifs in drug discovery. We report an efficient method to access chiral sulfoximines through a C-H functionalization based kinetic resolution. A rhodium(III) complex equipped with a chiral Cp-x ligand selectively participates in conjunction with phthaloyl phenylalanine in the C-H activation of just one of the two sulfoximine enantiomers. The intermediate reacts with various diazo compounds, providing access to chiral 1,2-benzothiazines with synthetically valuable substitution patterns. Both sulfoximines and 1,2-benzothiazines were obtained in high yields and excellent enantioselectivity, with s-values of up to 200. The utility of the method is illustrated by the synthesis of the key intermediates of two pharmacologically relevant kinase inhibitors.

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH2019

Copper-Catalyzed 1,2-Methoxy Methoxycarbonylation of Alkenes with Methyl Formate and Synthetic Studies Towards the Total Synthesis of Koumine, Voacafricine A and Voacafricine B

Balázs Budai

EPFL2020

Molecular Engineering of Electrode Surfaces for Electrocatalysis

Patrick Eduard Alexa

EPFL2020