The body has many defence systems against reactive radical species, but none are as crucial in the protection of lipid membranes as vitamin E. As a result of a selection process mediated by the α-tocopherol transfer protein (α-TTP), α-tocopherol is the only form of vitamin E retained in the body. This chaperon protein has been well studied because of its role in vitamin E transport. Furthermore, malfunctions of α-TTP cause vitamin E deficiency leading to ataxia and other neurodegenerative disease. Protection of neuronal tissue is critical and is reflected in the high retention of α-tocopherol in the central nervous system. Neuronal tissues receive α tocopherol from astrocytes, cells that are linked to hepatic tissue and able to express α-TTP, however the exact path of delivery between these cells is still unclear. A technique called fluorescent microscopy allows the tracking of fluorescent molecules in cells to find their location and interactions with other parts of the cell. The focus of this study is the synthesis of a fluorescent tocopherol analogue with a long absorption wavelength, high photostability, and that binds selectively to  α-TTP with high affinity. Most health benefits associated with vitamin E consumption are based on its capability to inhibit lipid peroxidation in cell membranes by scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS). Oxidative damage in membranes puts cells in a “stressful” state, activating signalling events that trigger apoptosis. Vitamin E down-regulates apoptotic functions like inflammation, macrophage activation and cell arrest in a stressed state, returning the cell back to normal functioning. At the same time, vitamin E has a preventive effect for atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s and cancer. With the deeper understanding of cell signalling processes associated with vitamin E the question arose whether protein interactions or the ROS scavenging is responsible for cell survival. To test this hypothesis, a non-antioxidant but α-TTP binding tocopherol analogue was synthesized and administered into oxidatively stressed, α-TTP deficient cells. If the cells were unable to restore homeostasis and stop apoptosis with the new molecule, this would suggest that the antioxidant function of α-tocopherol is the reason for survival. Cancer is regarded as one of the most detrimental diseases with a high mortality rate. One key aspect in medical research is the increased drug specificity towards targeting cancer. Chemotherapy applies cytotoxic compounds, which weaken the immune system because both malignant and healthy cells are destroyed. The specificity of the anti-cancer drugs are enhanced when encapsulated into liposomes that bear target-directing molecules such as antibodies which recognize cancer cell specific antigens on the cell membrane. The question remains if the encapsulated drug reaches the cancer or not. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) are used to find malignant tissue in the body. CT imaging uses highly charged X-ray particles to scan the patient, possibly having damaging cytotoxic effects. Obtaining MRI results require the use of contrast agents to enhance the quality of images. These agents are based on transition metals, which potentially have chronic toxicity when retained in the body. Alternatively short-lived radiotracers that emit a γ-photon upon positron decay are used through a process called positron emission tomography (PET). Rapid decay times make the use of PET a less toxic alternative, however the decay products might be toxic to the cell. For this reason a vitamin E based PET agent was created, which produces naturally safe decay products based on known metabolites of vitamin E, useful to track liposomal delivery of chemotherapeutic agents. This work describes the non-radioactive synthetic procedures towards a variety of vitamin E PET analogues. The cytotoxicity of the most promising vitamin E PET tracer was evaluated along with its synthetic byproducts.

The employment of the bridging/chelating Schiff base ligands, N-salicylidene-o-aminophenol (saphH2), N-salicylidene-o-aminocyclohexanol (sachH2) and N-salicylidene-2-amino-5-chlorobenzoic acid (sacbH2), in lanthanide (LnIII) cluster chemistry has afforded four families of polynuclear and dinuclear complexes with new structural motifs, and interesting magnetic and optical properties. Chapter 1 deals with most of the fundamental aspects within the areas of polynuclear metal complexes, molecular magnetism and optics as these are applied to 4f-metal based systems, while the research results are reported in Chapters 2, 3 and 4. In the first project (Chapter 2), the coordination chemistry of the organic chelating/bridging ligand, N-salicylidene-o-aminophenol (saphH2) in lanthanide cluster chemistry was investigated. The general LnIII/X-/saphH2/base reaction system has led to a family of (NHEt3)[Ln7(OH)2(saph)10(Me2CO)2] (Ln = Gd (1); Tb (2); Dy (3)) clusters with a new core topology that comprises two {Ln4} butterflies sharing a common metal vertex. The {DyIII7} analogue exhibits slow magnetization relaxation, whereas all heptanuclear compounds show ligand-centered blue-green emissions. The second project of this thesis, which is discussed in Chapter 3, comprises the first use of the Schiff base ligand N-salicylidene-2-aminocyclohexanol (sachH2; mixture of cis- and trans-analogue) in metal cluster chemistry which has afforded a new family of [Ln7(OH)6(CO3)3(sach)3(sachH)3(MeOH)6] (Ln = Gd (4); Tb (5); Dy (6)) clusters with ideal D3h point group symmetry and metal-centered trigonal prismatic topology. Solid-state and solution studies revealed single-molecule magnetism (SMM) and photoluminescence behaviors. Moreover, in order to investigate the steric and stereoisomerism effects of the ligand on the chemical and structural identity of the {Ln7} clusters, the pure trans-analogue of the sachH2 ligand was utilized. As a result, a new family of octanuclear [Ln8(OH)4(CO3)2(trans-sach)8(EtOH)4] (Ln = Gd (7); Tb (8); Dy (9); Eu (10)) clusters were obtained, while the solid-state studies revealed SMM behavior and lanthanide-centered emissions. In the last chapter of this thesis (Chapter 4), the Schiff base ligand N-salicylidene-2-amino-5-chlorobenzoic acid (sacbH2) was introduced for a first time in lanthanide cluster chemistry. This has afforded a family of dinuclear [Ln2(NO3)4(sacbH)2(H2O)2(MeCN)2] compounds (Ln = Gd (11); Tb (12); Dy (13)) with the Dy-analogue exhibiting SMM behaviour with a high-energy barrier for the magnetization reversal and interesting magnetization dynamics. All research-based Chapters (Chapters 2-4) are divided into subsections in order to facilitate the understanding of the research concepts by the familiar and non-familiar readers and contextualize the messages, goals and conclusions of each individual project. I felt it prudent to always begin with a short preface of the work that summarizes the most important aspects of the specific project, followed by the complete experimental part and discussion of the results, and finishing up with conclusions and some future perspectives.

The β-diketiminate aluminum(I) complex NacNacAl (III-1) was shown to activate a range of substrates containing robust single and double bonds. Compound III-1 oxidatively adds a variety of H–X bonds (X = H, B, Al, C, Si, N, P, O) to give a series of four-coordinate aluminum hydride derivatives including the first example of an aluminum boryl hydride. In the case of Al–H addition, the reaction was shown to be in equilibrium and reversible. Furthermore, cleavage of aryl and alkyl C–F bonds, the latter a rare reaction with only a handful of examples in the literature, was observed with III-1. Robust C–O and C–S bonds were also activated by III-1 along with RS–SR and R2P–PR2 bonds. All novel aluminum complexes were characterized by spectroscopic methods and X-ray diffraction analysis for the majority of them. Activation of the C=S or P=S bonds in a thiourea or phosphine sulfide, respectively, was accomplished by III-1 to give the first examples of Lewis base-stabilized monomeric terminal aluminum sulfides. The nature of the Al=S bond was examined computationally as well as experimentally. Related reaction with a urea derivative gave an unexpected aluminum hydride while reaction of III-1 with phosphine oxides gave a putative aluminum oxide as a result of P=O bond cleavage. However, the aluminum oxo promptly deprotonates a neighbouring molecule to furnish an aluminum hydroxide as the isolated product. Reduction of the cationic germanium(II) complex IV-1 affords the formally zero valent germanium complex IV-4 stabilized by the bis(imino)pyridine platform. Compound IV-4 was fully characterized by spectroscopic methods and X-ray diffraction analysis. The molecule has a singlet ground state and DFT studies revealed partial delocalization of one of the germanium lone pairs into the ligand framework. Complex IV-4 was unreactive towards H–X bond activation, the lack of reactivity ascribed to the large singlet-triplet energy gap calculated. The same bis(imino)pyridine ligand was also used to prepare reduced zinc complexes. Monoreduction of the zinc dichloride precursor gave the formally Zn(I) compound IV-6. Further reduction of IV-6 in the presence of DMAP gave the formally zero valent zinc complex IV-9. Both compounds were fully characterized by spectroscopic methods, DFT calculations, and X-ray diffraction analysis which revealed that both zinc atoms are four-coordinate and adopt unusual square planar and see-saw geometry, respectively.

A. During our attempts to synthesize substituted enediynes, coupling reactions between terminal alkynes and 1,2-cis-dihaloalkenes under the Sonogashira reaction conditions failed to give the corresponding substituted enediynes. Under these conditions, terminal alkynes underwent self-trimerization or tetramerization. In an alternative approach to access substituted enediynes, treatment of alkynes with trisubstituted (Z)-bromoalkenyl-pinacolboronates under Sonogashira coupling conditions was found to give 1,2,4,6-tetrasubstituted benzenes instead of Sonogashira coupled product. The reaction conditions and substrate scopes for these two new reactions were investigated. B. BODIPY core was functionalized with various functional groups such as nitromethyl, nitro, hydroxymethyl, carboxaldehyde by treating 4,4-difluoro-1,3,5,7,8-pentamethyl-2,6-diethyl-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene with copper (II) nitrate trihydrate under different conditions. Further, BODIPY derivatives with alkyne and azido functional groups were synthesized and conjugated to various glycosides by the Click reaction under the microwave conditions. One of the BODIPY–glycan conjugate was found to form liposome upon rehydration. The photochemical properties of BODIPY in these liposomes were characterized by fluorescent confocal microscopy.

Our work on single molecule magnets and multifunctional magnetic materials is presented in four projects. In the first project we show for first time that heteroatomic-type pseudohalides, such as OCN-, can be employed as structure-directing ligands and ferromagnetic couplers in higher oxidation state metal cluster chemistry. The initial use of cyanato groups in Mn cluster chemistry has afforded structurally interesting MnII/III14 (1) and MnII/III/IV16 (2) clusters in which the end-on bridging cyanates show a preference in binding through their O-atom. The Mn14 compound shows entirely visible out-of-phase alternating currect signals below 5 K and large hysteresis loops below 2 K. Furthermore, the amalgamation of azido groups with the triethanolamine tripodal ligand in manganese carboxylate cluster chemistry has led to the isolation of a new ferromagnetic, high-nuclearity and mixed-valence MnII/III15Na2 (3) cluster with a large ground-state spin value of S = 14. In the second project we demonstrate a new synthetic route to purely inorganic-bridged, transition metal-azido clusters [CoII7 (4) and NiII7 (5)] and coordination polymers [{FeII/III2}n (6)] which exhibit strong ferromagnetic, SMM and long-range magnetic ordering behaviors. We also show that access to such a unique ferromagnetic class of inorganic, N-rich and O-free materials is feasible through the use of Me3SiN3 as the azido-ligand precursor without requiring the addition of any organic chelating/bridging ligand. In the last projects we have tried to bring together molecular magnetism and optics via the synthesis of multifunctional magnetic materials based on 3d- or 4f-metal ions. We decided to approach such challenge from two different directions: firstly, in our third project, by the deliberate replacement of non-emissive carboxylato ligands in known 3d-SMMs with their fluorescent analogues, without perturbing the metal-core structure and SMM properties (complexes 7, 8, and 9). The second route (last project) involves the use of naphthalene or pyridine-based polyalcohol bridging ligands for the synthesis of new polynuclear LnIII metal clusters (Ln = lanthanide) with novel topologies, SMM behaviors and luminescent properties arising from the increased efficiency of the “antenna” organic group. This approach has led us to the isolation of two new families of LnIII8 (complexes 10-13) and LnIII4 (complexes 14-20) clusters.

This thesis describes the synthesis and use of an N-substituted ferrocene bearing a proline-derived chiral directing group and diastereoselective lithiation-electrophile quench of the pro-Sp hydrogen of the ferrocene to give planar chiral products in >95:5 dr. The auxiliary group is found to be stable to lithium bases of types RLi and R2NLi giving the same diastereoselectivity. The anti- epimer of the previously mentioned syn auxiliary induces lithiation of pro Rp rather than pro Sp hydrogen in >95:5 dr. Upon electrophile quench and elimination, the enantiomer of the syn-derived planar chiral imidazolone is obtained. Hence, this method provides a practical way to prepare planar chiral enantiomers in this series without the use of a more expensive D-proline derived starting material. The syn and anti epimers have β, γ-stereogenic centers and the origin of stereoselectivity in lithiation appears to be driven by the conformational bias exerted by the β-silyloxy moiety in each chiral auxiliary. In the thesis, this conclusion is supported using insensitivity of lithiation selectivity to the bulkiness of the base, comparison of enantiomers, deuteration experiments, nOe difference studies and computational modeling of the ground states and lithiation transition states for both substrates. The products are then converted to ligand precursors to make iridium and rhodium complexes. Among them, one of the cationic iridium complex is found to be effective in the asymmetric hydrogenation of 2-substituted quinolines with enantioselectivities up to 80% at pressures as low as 5 atm.

This thesis describes the chemoenzymatic synthesis of three morphine alkaloids. The total synthesis of dihydrocodeine and hydrocodone was accomplished starting from bromobenzene in 16 and 17 steps, respectively. The key steps included a microbial oxidation of bromobenzene by E. coli JM109 (pDTG601A), a Kazmaier-Claisen rearrangement of glycinate ester to generate C-9 and C-14 stereo centers, a Johnson-Claisen rearrangement to set the C-13 quaternary center, and a C-10/C-11 ring closure via a Friedel-Crafts reaction. In addition, the total synthesis of ent-hydromorphone starting from β-bromoethylbenzene in 12 steps is also described. The key reactions included the enzymatic dihydroxylation of β-bromoethylbenzene to the corresponding cis-cyclohexadienediol, a Mitsunobu reaction, and an oxidative dearomatization followed by an intramolecular [4+2] cycloaddition.

The Dudding group is interested in the application of Density Functional Theory (DFT) in developing asymmetric methodologies, and thus the focus of this dissertation will be on the integration of these approaches. Several interrelated subsets of computer aided design and implementation in catalysis have been addressed during the course of these studies. The first of the aims rested upon the advancement of methodologies for the synthesis of biological active C(1)-chiral 3-methylene-indan-1-ols, which in practice lead to the use of a sequential asymmetric Yamamoto-Sakurai-Hosomi allylation/Mizoroki Heck reaction sequence. An important aspect of this work was the utilization of ortho-substituted arylaldehyde reagents which are known to be a problematic class of substrates for existing asymmetric allylation approaches. The second phase of my research program lead to the further development of asymmetric allylation methods using o-arylaldehyde substrates for synthesis of chiral C(3)-substituted phthalides. Apart from the de novo design of these chemistries in silico, which notably utilized water-tolerant, inexpensive, and relatively environmental benign indium metal, this work represented the first computational study of a stereoselective indium-mediated process. Following from these discoveries was the advent of a related, yet catalytic, Ag(I)-catalyzed approach for preparing C(3)-substituted phthalides that from a practical standpoint was complementary in many ways. Not only did this new methodology build upon my earlier work with the integrated (experimental/computational) use of the Ag(I)-catalyzed asymmetric methods in synthesis, it provided fundamental insight arrived at through DFT calculations, regarding the Yamamoto-Sakurai-Hosomi allylation. The development of ligands for unprecedented asymmetric Lewis base catalysis, especially asymmetric allylations using silver and indium metals, followed as a natural extension from these earlier discoveries. To this end, forthcoming as well was the advancement of a family of disubstituted (N-cyclopropenium guanidine/N-imidazoliumyl substituted cyclopropenylimine) nitrogen adducts that has provided fundamental insight into chemical bonding and offered an unprecedented class of phase transfer catalysts (PTC) having far-reaching potential. Salient features of these disubstituted nitrogen species is unprecedented finding of a cyclopropenium based C-H•••πaryl interaction, as well, the presence of a highly dissociated anion projected them to serve as a catalyst promoting fluorination reactions. Attracted by the timely development of these disubstituted nitrogen adducts my last studies as a PhD scholar has addressed the utility of one of the synthesized disubstituted nitrogen adducts as a valuable catalyst for benzylation of the Schiff base N-diphenyl methylene glycine ethyl ester. Additionally, the catalyst was applied for benzylic fluorination, emerging from this exploration was successful fluorination of benzyl bromide and its derivatives in high yields. A notable feature of this protocol is column-free purification of the product and recovery of the catalyst to use in a further reaction sequence.

Described herein is the chemoenzymatic synthesis of several different types of unnatural analogues of Amaryllidaceae constituents. Development and refinement of existing and design and execution of new approaches towards the synthesis of C-1 analogues of pancratistatin and A-ring heterocyclic analogues of narciclasine are discussed. Evaluation of the new analogues as cancer growth inhibitory agents is also described

Work in the area of molecule-based magnetic and/or conducting materials is presented in two projects. The first project describes the use of 4,4’-bipyridine as a scaffold for the preparation of a new family of tetracarboxamide ligands. Four new ligands I-III have been prepared and characterized and the coordination chemistry of these ligands is presented. This project was then extended to exploit 4,4’-bipyridine as a covalent linker between two N3O2 macrocyles. In this respect, three dimeric macrocycles have been prepared IV-VI. Substitution of the labile axial ligands of the Co(II) complex IV by [Fe(CN)6]4- afforded the self-assembly of the 1-D polymeric chain {[Co(N3O2)H2O]2Fe(CN)6}n•3H2O that has been structurally and magnetically characterized. Magnetic studies on the Fe(II) complexes V and VI indicate that they undergo incomplete spin crossover transitions in the solid state. Strategies for the preparation of chiral spin crossover N3O2 macrocycles are discussed and the synthesis of the novel chiral Fe(II) macrocyclic complex VII is reported. Magnetic susceptibility and Mössbauer studies reveal that this complex undergoes a gradual spin crossover in the solid state with no thermal hysteresis. Variable temperature X-ray diffraction studies on single crystals of VII reveal interesting structural changes in the coordination geometry of the macrocycle accompanying its SCO transition. The second project reports the synthesis and characterization of a new family of tetrathiafulvalene derivatives VIII – XII, where a heterocyclic chelating ligand is appended to a TTF donor via an imine linker. The coordination chemistries of these ligands with M(hfac)2.H2O (M( = Co, Ni, Mn, Cu) have been explored and the structural and magnetic properties of these complexes are described.