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Iron and Nickel Complexes as Catalysts in CO2/Epoxide Coupling, Radical Polymerisation and Hydrocyanation Reactions Eszter Fazekas A thesis submitted at the University of Edinburgh for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2018 Table of contents Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................... 2 Declaration .............................................................................................................................................. 5 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. 6 Lay summary ........................................................................................................................................... 8 Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 9 Publications ........................................................................................................................................... 10 Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................................ 11 Chapter 1 General introduction ........................................................................................................ 13 Chapter 2 Ligand development for hydrocyanation and isomerisation reactions.......................... 18 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 19 Hydrocyanation ............................................................................................................................. 19 Industrial relevance....................................................................................................................... 20 Definition of main ligand parameters ........................................................................................... 21 Mechanistic studies ...................................................................................................................... 22 DuPont adiponitrile process .......................................................................................................... 25 Critical evaluation ......................................................................................................................... 29 Aims .................................................................................................................................................. 30 Results and Discussion ...................................................................................................................... 31 Triptycene ligand............................................................................................................................... 31 Background ................................................................................................................................... 31 Synthesis of Triptycene ligand ...................................................................................................... 33 Tetraphenol ligands .......................................................................................................................... 35 Background ................................................................................................................................... 35 Synthesis of tetraphenol backbones ............................................................................................. 36 Synthesis of tetraphenol diphosphite ligands............................................................................... 38 Synthesis and characterisation of a tetraphenol-Ni complex ....................................................... 40 Catalytic activity of the TP2Ni complex in the ADN process ......................................................... 42 Biphephos ligand ............................................................................................................................... 47 Background ................................................................................................................................... 47 Hydrocyanation of styrene with Biphephos ligand ....................................................................... 49 Hydrocyanation of 1,3-butadiene with Biphephos ligand ............................................................ 51 Isomerisation of 2-methyl-3-butenenitrile with Biphephos ligand .............................................. 52 Hydrocyanation of 3-pentenenitrile with Biphephos ligand ........................................................ 56 2 Table of contents Summary and future work ................................................................................................................ 57 Experimental ..................................................................................................................................... 59 General considerations ................................................................................................................. 59 Synthesis of 1,8-difluoroanthraquinone ....................................................................................... 59 Synthesis of 1,8-difluoroanthracene ............................................................................................. 60 Synthesis of 1,8-difuorotriptycene ............................................................................................... 60 Synthesis of 1,8-diphenylphosphinotriptycene ............................................................................ 61 Synthesis of TP0 backbone ........................................................................................................... 61 Synthesis of TPB backbone ........................................................................................................... 62 Synthesis of TP2 ligand ................................................................................................................. 62 Synthesis of TP6 ligand ................................................................................................................. 63 Synthesis of TP7 ligand ................................................................................................................. 63 Synthesis of TP2Ni complex .......................................................................................................... 63 Synthesis of BIPPP ligand .............................................................................................................. 64 General procedure for hydrocyanation experiments ................................................................... 64 General procedure for 2M3BN isomerisation experiments ......................................................... 64 References ........................................................................................................................................ 65 Chapter 3 Iron half salen complexes: synthesis, characterisation and application in CO2/epoxide coupling ................................................................................................................................................ 69 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 70 Half salen ligands and complexes ..................................................................................................... 70 Synthesis of cyclic carbonates via CO2/epoxide coupling ................................................................. 72 Critical evaluation ............................................................................................................................. 81 Aims .................................................................................................................................................. 82 Results and discussion ...................................................................................................................... 83 Synthesis of half salen pro-ligands .................................................................................................... 83 Synthesis of FeIII half salen complexes .............................................................................................. 84 CO2/epoxide coupling reactions ....................................................................................................... 90 Summary and future work .............................................................................................................