Promoting difficult coupling processes: synthesis of phosphine-olefin hybrid ligands, reactivity and reductive elimination studies

Abstract

The work developed during this doctoral thesis involves the design, synthesis, characterization and evaluation of the catalytic activity of a family of hybrid phosphine-olefin (PEWO) ligands that are able to promote challenging coupling processes. The memory is organized in five main blocks: Introduction, Results and Discussion, Experimental Section, Resumen en español (Spanish Summary) and Annex. First of all, the introduction presents concepts related to the four main topics treated: Ligand design, Reductive elimination promoted by ligands, Negishi reaction mechanism and Reductive elimination in Ni. The results obtained have led so far to the publication of several articles, although there are others that are in the process of being published. In the Results and Discussion block brief comments about the former, as well as full description of the later (drafts) are presented. The experimental characterization of the compounds and detailed explanation of some experiments is gathered in the Experimental Section. In addition, according to the Spanish regulation of Doctoral Thesis, a brief summary of the thesis written in Spanish is included. Finally, the Articles published (with the corresponding Supporting Information) in the original format of the paper are reproduced.