"Metal catalysed diboration of a,(β- unsaturated carbonyl compounds"

This thesis describes an investigation to find an improved catalyst for the diboration of a,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. Chapter 1 presents an overview of work already carried out in the area of diboration reactions of unsaturated organic molecules, particularly focusing on reactions of a,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. Chapter 2 describes the results found using a variety of Pt(0) catalysts for the diboration of various a,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. These include a variety of phosphines in conjunction with Pt(NBE)(_3), which gave no great improvement on previously known systems, and Pt(BIAN)(fum), a diimine platinum(0) catalyst, which showed significantly improved reactivity. Chapter 3 outlines the structural determination of products formed using Pt(BIAN)(fum) for the diboration procedure. Particularly interesting is the variance in position of diboration, i.e. 1,4 vs. 1,2 addition, depending on the electronic properties of the a,β-unsaturated carbonyl compound.