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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Selenium redox-catalyzed alkene syn-difunctionalization

Abstract

dc:description

This thesis covers two projects both involving the use of selenium redox catalysis for alkene difunctionalization. It begins with a brief overview of the chemistry of electrophilic selenium reagents and their reactivity with alkenes to incorporate various nucleophiles in selenofunctionalization reactions. It then moves into examples where the incorporated selenide can be oxidized and displaced to give syn-dichlorination and syn-diamination products. In covering the state of the art in main group redox catalysis for alkene difunctionalization, comparisons are made to transformations accomplished using organoiodine redox catalysis. Chapter 2 covers the development of a high yielding and highly enantioselective alkene oxyamination reaction for the synthesis of 2-aryl oxazolines, based upon an existing strategy for alkene diamination. This oxyamination method uses N-tosyl benzamides in combination with alkene substrates, a chiral diselenide catalyst, and sym-collidinium fluoride tetrafluoroborate as an oxidant. Reaction discovery and optimization, alkene substrate scope, and transformation of the products to differentially protected amino alcohols as well as PHOX ligands are discussed. Mechanistic considerations of low-yielding substrates are addressed, and future directions including use of alkene oxyamination for the synthesis of additional classes of oxazoline-containing ligands are discussed. Chapter 3 covers efforts to elucidate the mechanism of the selenium redox-catalyzed syn¬-diamination reaction. Experiments towards mechanism determination included reaction profile determination through continuous reaction monitoring by 19F NMR, initial rate kinetics, assessment of any non-linear effects, probing for radical intermediates, evaluation of isolable species of reactions at partial conversion, and attempted syntheses of postulated intermediates along the proposed catalytic cycle. Along the way, the effects of reaction parameters including concentration, identity of solvent, urea nucleophile, oxidant, and diselenide were evaluated.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph.D.
Level thesis:degree_level
Dissertation
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Chemistry
Grantor
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Year dc:date
2023

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Mumford, Emily Millicent
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Denmark, Scott E.
  • van der Donk, Wilfred A.
  • Mirica, Liviu M.
  • Mehta, Angad P.

Subjects

dc:subject × 7

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • Copyright 2023 Emily Mumford
Language dc:language
en, eng

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121198

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
Base URL
www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Mumford, Emily Millicent. Selenium redox-catalyzed alkene syn-difunctionalization. Dissertation thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2023. https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121198