A central tenant of organic synthesis is the construction of carbon-carbon bonds. One of the traditional methods for carrying out such transformations is that of carbonyl addition. Unfortunately, traditional carbonyl addition chemistry suffers various drawbacks: preactivation, moisture sensitivity, and the generation of stoichiometric organometallic waste. The research presented in this dissertation focuses on the development of methods that make use of nucleophile-electrophile pairs generated in situ via transfer hydrogenation, which allow the formation of carbonyl or imine addition products from the alcohol or amine oxidation level; streamlining the construction of complex molecules from simple, readily available starting materials. Additionally, studies toward the total synthesis of the fibrinogen receptor inhibitor tetrafibricin, utilizing the methods developed in catalytic carbon-carbon bond formation through the addition, transfer or removal of hydrogen, are presented.

Carbon-carbon bond forming reactions are vital to the synthesis of natural products and pharmaceuticals. In 2003, the 200 best selling prescription drugs reported in Med Ad News are all organic compounds. Synthesizing these compounds involves many carbon-carbon bond forming processes, which are not trivial and typically generate large amounts of waste byproducts. Thus, development of an atom economical and environmentally benign carbon-carbon bond forming methodology is highly desirable. Hydrogenation is one of the most powerful catalytic reactions and has been utilized extensively in industry. Although carbon-carbon bond forming reactions under hydrogenation conditions, such as, alkene hydroformylation and the Fischer-Tropsch reaction are known, they are limited to the coupling of unsaturated hydrocarbons to carbon monoxide. Recently, a breakthrough was made by the Krische group, who demonstrated that catalytic hydrogenative C-C bond forming reactions can be extended to the coupling partners other than carbon monoxide. This discovery has led to the development of a new class of carbon-carbon bond forming reactions. Herein, an overview of transition metal-catalyzed reductive couplings of [pi]-unsaturated systems employing various external reductants is summarized in Chapter 1. Chapters 2-4 describe a series of rhodium- and iridium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenative couplings of various alkynes to a wide range of imines and carbonyl compounds. These byproduct-free transformations provide a variety of optically enriched allylic amines and allylic alcohols, which are found in numerous natural products, and are used as versatile precursors for the synthesis of many biologically active compounds. Transfer hydrogenation represents another important class of reactions in organic chemistry. This process employs hydrogen sources other than gaseous dihydrogen, such as isopropanol. The Krische group succeeded in developing a new family of transfer hydrogenative carbon-carbon bond formation reactions. Chapter 5 presents two novel ruthenium- and iridium-catalyzed transfer hydrogenative carbonyl allylation reactions. The catalytic system employing iridium complexes enables highly enantioselective carbonyl allylation from both the alcohol and aldehyde oxidation level. These systems define a departure from the use of preformed organometallic reagents in carbonyl additions that transcends the boundaries of oxidation level.

Carbon-carbon bond forming reactions are fundamental transformations for constructing structurally complex organic building blocks, especially in the realm of natural products synthesis. Classical protocols for forming a C-C bond typically require the use of stoichiometrically preformed organometallic reagents, constituting a major drawback for organic synthesis on process scale. Since the emergence of transition metal catalysis in hydrogenation and hydrogenative C-C coupling reactions, atom and step economy have become important considerations in the development of sustainable methods. In the Krische laboratory, our goal is to utilize abundant, renewable feedstocks, so that the reactions can proceed in an efficient and atom-economical manner. Our research focuses on developing new C-C bond forming protocols that transcend the use of stoichiometric, preformed organometallic reagents, in which [pi]-unsaturates can be employed as surrogates to discrete premetallated reagents. Under transition metal catalyzed transfer hydrogenation conditions, alcohols can engage in C-C coupling, avoiding unnecessary redox manipulations prior to carbonyl addition. Stereoselective variants of these reactions are also under extensive investigation to effect stereo-induction by way of chiral motifs found in ligands and counterions. The research presented in this dissertation represents the development of a new class of C-C bond forming transformations useful for constructing synthetic challenging molecules. Development of transfer hydrogenative C-C bond forming reactions in the form of carbonyl additions such as carbonyl allylation, carbonyl propargylation, carbonyl vinylation etc. are discussed in detail. Additionally, these methods avoid the use of stoichiometric chiral allenylmetal, propargylmetal or vinylmetal reagents, respectively, accessing diastereo- and enantioenriched products of carbonyl additions in the absence of stoichiometric organometallic byproducts. By exploiting the atom-economical transfer hydrogenative carbonyl addition protocols using ruthenium and iridium, preparations of important structural motifs that are abundant in natural products, such as allylic alcohols, homoallylic alcohols and homopropargylic alcohols, become more feasible and accessible.

Since C-C bonds form the backbone of every organic molecule and reside at the heart of chemical science, the development of new efficient methods for promoting C-C bond formation is of great significance. Inspired and expanded from traditional Grignard reactions, the work presented in this dissertation focuses on metal catalyzed neutral redox-triggered carbonyl addition via transfer hydrogenation. Advancing the native reducing capability of alcohols, employment of catalytic transition metals enables the formation of nucleophile-electrophile pairs in situ, en route to the products of formal alcohol C-H functionalization. These redox-triggered reactions circumvent the stoichiometric metallated byproduct waste and streamline the construction of complex molecules from simple and/or readily available feedstocks. The research reported herein discloses new developed methodologies of ruthenium and iridium catalyzed coupling reactions of primary and secondary alcohols with various pi-unsaturates. These studies contribute to the growing body of redox-triggered alcohol C-C couplings - new carbonyl addition chemistry that extends beyond the use of premetalated reagents.

Carbon-carbon bond formation is one the fundamental reactions in organic synthesis. The quest for the development of new and more efficient processes for the construction of this bond has been an ongoing focus for years. The transformations that permit the use of simple precursors to access complex structural architectures in the absence of stoichiometric quantities by-products are highly desirable. Hydrogen is a cheapest and cleanest reductant available to the mankind. The catalytic hydrogenation has been widely utilized in the industry, however the construction of the carbon-carbon bond under hydrogenative conditions has been achieved only for alkene hydroformylations and Fisher-Tropsh process and limited to the use of carbon monoxide. The extension of the hydrogenative carbon-carbon bond formations beyond aforementioned processes would be of a great significance to the synthetic community. The overview of allene use in the metal catalyzed reactions to achieve carbonyl and imine allylation and vinylation is presented in Chapter 1. The following chapter vii discusses the development of metal catalyzed hydrogenative and transfer hydrogenative coupling of allenes and carbonyl compounds to afford allylation products. These studies have resulted in the development of the first carbonyl allylation from the alcohol oxidation level. Chapter 3 discusses efforts towards achieving highly enantioselective hydrogenative coupling of alkynes to carbonyl compounds.