Date of Graduation

7-2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Chemistry & Biochemistry

Advisor/Mentor

McIntosh, Matthias C.

Committee Member

Kilyanek, Stefan M.

Second Committee Member

Chen, Jingyi

Third Committee Member

Zheng, Nan

Keywords

Breslow; Organic; Radicals; Thiazole rings

Abstract

Electron rich enamines are capable of C-N bond homolysis and subsequent recombination and/or disproportionation. It is unclear what causes these radicals to undergo recombination or disproportionation. Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations do not provide a transition state for the recombination and disproportionation processes and therefore they cannot be used to predict the favorable reaction. Breslow intermediates formed by deprotonation of thiazolium salts and reaction with aromatic aldehydes are examples of electron rich enamines. These breslow intermediates can undergo C-N bond homolysis to form a radical pair the either recombine or disproportionate. Upon investigation of the factors influencing recombination and disproportionation, it was determined that when fluorene is employed as the nitrogen substituent on thiazole, the reaction favors disproportionation at low and high temperatures.

The biological compound “vitachrome” was synthesized by reacting thiamine HCl with triethylamine in DMF. We hypothesize vitachrome forms through a radical mechanism which is supported by the observation of pyrimidine monomer and dimer in the reaction mixture. An asymmetric dimer can also be formed using this method when diphenylmethylthiazolium bromide salt and diphenylmethylbenzothiazolium bromide salt are used as starting materials.

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