Investigation of catalyst effects in enantioselective copper- and rhodium-mediated transformations of α-diazocarbonyl compounds

This thesis describes the synthesis and reactivity of a series of α-diazocarbonyl compounds with particular emphasis on the use of copper-bis(oxazoline)-mediated enantioselective C–H insertion reactions leading to enantioenriched cyclopentanone derivatives. Through the use of additives, the enantioselectivity achieved with the copper catalysts for the first time reaches synthetically useful levels (up to 91% ee). Chapter one provides a comprehensive overview of enantioselective C–H insertions with α-diazocarbonyl compounds from the literature. The majority of reports in this section involve rhodium-catalysed systems with limited reports to date of asymmetric C–H insertion reactions in the presence of copper catalysts. Chapter two focuses on the synthesis and C–H insertion reactions of α-diazo-β-keto sulfones leading to α-sulfonyl cyclopentanones as the major product. Detailed investigation of the impact of substrate structure (both the sulfonyl substitutent and the substituent at the site of insertion), the copper source, ligand, counterion, additive and solvent was undertaken to provide an insight into the mechanistic basis for enantiocontrol in the synthetically powerful C–H insertion process and to enable optimisation of enantiocontrol and ligand design. Perhaps the most significant outcome of this work is the enhanced enantioselection achieved through use of additives, substantially improving the synthetic utility of the asymmetric C–H insertion process. In addition to the C–H insertion reaction, mechanistically interesting competing reaction pathways involving hydride transfer are observed. Chapter three reports the extension of the catalyst-additive systems, developed for C–H insertions with α-diazo-β-keto sulfones in chapter two, to C–H insertion in analogous α-diazo-β-keto phosphonate and α-diazo-β-keto ester systems. While similar patterns were seen in terms of ligand effects, the enantiopurities achieved for these reactions were lower than those in the cyclisations with analogous α-diazo-β-keto sulfones. Extension of this methodology to cyclopropanation and oxium ylide formation/[2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement was also explored. Chapter four contains the full experimental details and spectral characterisation of all novel compounds synthesised in this project, while details of chiral stationary phase HPLC analysis and X-ray crystallography are included in the appendix.

Beyond simple imaging with energetic beams – nanopatterning, correlative microscopy and statistical analysis of inclusions

Electron microscopy (EM) has advanced in an exponential way since the first transmission electron microscope (TEM) was built in the 1930’s. The urge to ‘see’ things is an essential part of human nature (talk of ‘seeing is believing’) and apart from scanning tunnel microscopes which give information about the surface, EM is the only imaging technology capable of really visualising atomic structures in depth down to single atoms. With the development of nanotechnology the demand to image and analyse small things has become even greater and electron microscopes have found their way from highly delicate and sophisticated research grade instruments to key-turn and even bench-top instruments for everyday use in every materials research lab on the planet. The semiconductor industry is as dependent on the use of EM as life sciences and pharmaceutical industry. With this generalisation of use for imaging, the need to deploy advanced uses of EM has become more and more apparent. The combination of several coinciding beams (electron, ion and even light) to create DualBeam or TripleBeam instruments for instance enhances the usefulness from pure imaging to manipulating on the nanoscale. And when it comes to the analytic power of EM with the many ways the highly energetic electrons and ions interact with the matter in the specimen there is a plethora of niches which evolved during the last two decades, specialising in every kind of analysis that can be thought of and combined with EM. In the course of this study the emphasis was placed on the application of these advanced analytical EM techniques in the context of multiscale and multimodal microscopy – multiscale meaning across length scales from micrometres or larger to nanometres, multimodal meaning numerous techniques applied to the same sample volume in a correlative manner. In order to demonstrate the breadth and potential of the multiscale and multimodal concept an integration of it was attempted in two areas: I) Biocompatible materials using polycrystalline stainless steel and II) Semiconductors using thin multiferroic films. I) The motivation to use stainless steel (316L medical grade) comes from the potential modulation of endothelial cell growth which can have a big impact on the improvement of cardio-vascular stents – which are mainly made of 316L – through nano-texturing of the stent surface by focused ion beam (FIB) lithography. Patterning with FIB has never been reported before in connection with stents and cell growth and in order to gain a better understanding of the beam-substrate interaction during patterning a correlative microscopy approach was used to illuminate the patterning process from many possible angles. Electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD) was used to analyse the crystallographic structure, FIB was used for the patterning and simultaneously visualising the crystal structure as part of the monitoring process, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were employed to analyse the topography and the final step being 3D visualisation through serial FIB/SEM sectioning. II) The motivation for the use of thin multiferroic films stems from the ever-growing demand for increased data storage at lesser and lesser energy consumption. The Aurivillius phase material used in this study has a high potential in this area. Yet it is necessary to show clearly that the film is really multiferroic and no second phase inclusions are present even at very low concentrations – ~0.1vol% could already be problematic. Thus, in this study a technique was developed to analyse ultra-low density inclusions in thin multiferroic films down to concentrations of 0.01%. The goal achieved was a complete structural and compositional analysis of the films which required identification of second phase inclusions (through elemental analysis EDX(Energy Dispersive X-ray)), localise them (employing 72 hour EDX mapping in the SEM), isolate them for the TEM (using FIB) and give an upper confidence limit of 99.5% to the influence of the inclusions on the magnetic behaviour of the main phase (statistical analysis).

Transport energy demand: techno-economic modelling and scenarios for Irish climate policy

The case for energy policy modelling is strong in Ireland, where stringent EU climate targets are projected to be overshot by 2015. Policy targets aiming to deliver greenhouse gas and renewable energy targets have been made, but it is unclear what savings are to be achieved and from which sectors. Concurrently, the growth of personal mobility has caused an astonishing increase in CO2 emissions from private cars in Ireland, a 37% rise between 2000 and 2008, and while there have been improvements in the efficiency of car technology, there was no decrease in the energy intensity of the car fleet in the same period. This thesis increases the capacity for evidenced-based policymaking in Ireland by developing techno-economic transport energy models and using them to analyse historical trends and to project possible future scenarios. A central focus of this thesis is to understand the effect of the car fleet‘s evolving technical characteristics on energy demand. A car stock model is developed to analyse this question from three angles: Firstly, analysis of car registration and activity data between 2000 and 2008 examines the trends which brought about the surge in energy demand. Secondly, the car stock is modelled into the future and is used to populate a baseline “no new policy” scenario, looking at the impact of recent (2008-2011) policy and purchasing developments on projected energy demand and emissions. Thirdly, a range of technology efficiency, fuel switching and behavioural scenarios are developed up to 2025 in order to indicate the emissions abatement and renewable energy penetration potential from alternative policy packages. In particular, an ambitious car fleet electrification target for Ireland is examined. The car stock model‘s functionality is extended by linking it with other models: LEAP-Ireland, a bottom-up energy demand model for all energy sectors in the country; Irish TIMES, a linear optimisation energy system model; and COPERT, a pollution model. The methodology is also adapted to analyse trends in freight energy demand in a similar way. Finally, this thesis addresses the gap in the representation of travel behaviour in linear energy systems models. A novel methodology is developed and case studies for Ireland and California are presented using the TIMES model. Transport Energy

Synthesis and reactivity of pyridine substituted α-diazocarbonyl compounds and exploration of rhodium carboxylates as asymmetric catalysts

The primary objective of this thesis was the preparation of a series of pyridine-containing α-diazocarbonyl compounds and subsequent investigation of the reactivity of these compounds on exposure to transition metal catalysts. In particular, the reactivity of the pyridyl α-diazocarbonyls was compared to that of the analogous phenyl α-diazocarbonyl compounds to ascertain the impact of replacement of the phenyl ring with pyridine. The first chapter initially provides a brief introduction into α-diazocarbonyl chemistry, comprising a compendium of well-established and recently developed methods in the preparation of these compounds, as well as an outline of the reactivity of these versatile substrates. The substantive element of this introductory chapter comprises a detailed review focused on transition metal-catalysed transformations of heterocyclic α-diazocarbonyl compounds, highlighting the extraordinary diversity of reaction products which can be accessed. This review is undertaken to set the work of this thesis in context. The results of this research are discussed in the second and third chapters together with the associated experimental details, including spectroscopic and analytical data obtained in the synthesis of all compounds during this research. The second chapter describes the preparation of a range of novel pyridine-containing α-diazocarbonyl compounds via a number of synthetic strategies including both acylation and diazo transfer methodologies. In contrast to the phenyl analogues, the generation of the pyridine α-diazocarbonyl substrates was complicated by a number of factors including the inherent basicity of the pyridine ring, tautomerism and existence of rotamers. Rhodium- and copper-mediated transformations of the pyridine-containing α-diazocarbonyl compounds is discussed in detail displaying very different reactivity patterns to those seen with the phenyl analogues; oxidation to 2,3- diketones, 1,2-hydride shift to form enones and oxonium and sulfonium ylide formation/rearrangement are prominent in the pyridyl series, with no evidence of aromatic addition to the pyridine ring. The third chapter focuses on exploration of novel chiral rhodium(II) catalysts, developed in the Maguire team, in both intermolecular cyclopropanations and intramolecular C–H insertion reactions. In this chapter, the studies are focused on standard α-diazocarbonyl compounds without heteroaryl substituents. The most notable outcome was the achievement of high enantiopurities for intramolecular C–H insertions, which were competitive with, and even surpassed, established catalyst systems in some cases. This work has provided insight into solvent and temperature effects on yields as well as enantio- and diastereoselectivity, thereby providing guidance for future development and design of chiral rhodium carboxylate catalysts. While this is a preliminary study, the significance of the results lie in the fact that these are the first reactions to give substantial asymmetric induction with these novel rhodium carboxylates. While the majority of the α-diazocarbonyl compounds explored in this work were α-diazoketones, a number of α-diazoesters are also described. Details of chiral stationary phase HPLC analysis, single crystal analysis and 2D NMR experiments are included in the Appendix (Appendix III-V).