Browsing by Author "Banks, Aidan"

The opening segments give a summary of the history of catalysis in general and of frustrated Lewis pairs in particular, where both intra- and intermolecular types are discussed. In addition, the essences of the mechanisms of action of frustrated Lewis pairs are discussed, covering electric field, electron transfer and radical-type mechanisms. There is also a discussion on the activity of frustrated Lewis pairs towards dehydrogenation reactions, in which lies the main scope of this thesis. The background and intended parameters of the experimental aspects of this work are initially defined in the thesis scope, along with the practical considerations concerning the reagents, equipment, and special conditions for synthetic procedures also detailed here. The intention was to attempt to elucidate the extent of the impact of different factors, in this case solvent, Lewis acidity, Lewis basicity, and irradiation by blue LED, on dehydrogenation of various N-substituted pyrrolidine substrates. The subsequent section describes the synthetic procedures used for attempted syntheses of the amino-borane ligands. Not all syntheses of the desired ligands were successful, but there was enough success and enough pre-generated material to proceed to the next stage. Due to use of blue LED causing various potential radical side reactions, it was thought appropriate to describe the behaviour of both the sample and substrate blanks under irradiation, as well as the intended reactions during the screening process. Screening provided preliminary data on reaction determining factors, such as solvent, Lewis acidity of the catalyst, and substrate structure. Despite the relative difficulty and time-consuming nature of the catalyst syntheses, some interesting new modes of reactivity appear to be accessible, which may be worth investigating more in the future.