Transition Metals Catalysis in C-C and C-Heteroatom Bonds Forming Reactions

Transition metals catalysis represents an important and versatile tool for the organic synthesis. Indeed its use is associated with several advantages in terms of reaction selectivity, and “atom economy”. In the last decade the growing utilization of transition metals catalysis has deeply influenced and modified the design of heterocyclic synthesis as testified by the wide amount of studies on the palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction that in 2010 led Prof. Richard F. Heck (University of Delaware, USA), Prof. Ei-ichi Negishi (Purdue University, USA) and Prof. Akira Suzuki (Hokkaido University, Japan) to achieve the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. In this context, during my doctorate activity, we investigated the construction of heterocyclic rings and the production of derivatives of heterocyclic compounds of biological interest through palladium, copper and gold catalyzed reactions. As part of our studies on the palladium catalysis we developed several synthetic strategy for the construction of different classes of compounds such us functionalized 2,3-dihydrofurans, substituted 2,3-substituted quinolin-4-(1H)-ones, dibenzo[a,c]carbazoles, 2-amino ketones and aryl sulfones. Then, the economic attractiveness of copper-based methods and the growing interest in copper-catalyzed syntheses stimulated us to investigate some copper-catalyzed protocol. In this area we studied the oxidation reaction of the 1,2-diarylethanones and the cyclization reaction of the N-(2-bromoaryl)enaminones to obtain 2,4-diarylbenzo[b][1,4]oxazepines. Finally, using gold complexes we developed a new sinthetical approach to 2,4-diaryl-2,3- dihydro-1H-benzo[b][1,4]diazepines.