Carbonyl-Olefin Metathesis of Norbornene and Cyclopropenimine-Catalyzed Asymmetric Michael Reactions

This thesis details progress towards the development of an organocatalytic carbonyl-olefin metathesis of norbornene. This transformation has not previously been done catalytically and has not been done in practical manner with stepwise or stoichiometric processes. Building on the previous work of the Lambert lab on the metathesis of cyclopropene and an aldehyde using a hydrazine catalyst, this work discusses efforts to expand to the less stained norbornene. Computational and experimental studies on the catalytic cycle are discussed, including detailed experimental work on how various factors affect the difficult cycloreversion step. The second portion of this thesis details the use of chiral cyclopropenimine bases as catalysts for asymmetric Michael reactions. The Lambert lab has previously developed chiral cyclopropenimine bases for glycine imine nucleophiles. The scope of these catalysts was expanded to include glycine imine derivatives in which the nitrogen atom was replaced with a carbon atom, and to include imines derived from other amino acids.