This work involves two projects. The first project entails the study of bulk gold as a catalyst in oxidation reactions of isocyanides and amines. The main goal of this project was to study the activation and reactions of molecules at metal surfaces in order to assess how organometallic principles for homogeneous processes apply to heterogeneous catalysis. Since previous work had used oxygen as an oxidant in bulk gold catalyzed reactions, the generality of gold catalysis with other oxidants was examined. Amine N-oxides were chosen for study, due to their properties and use in the oxidation of carbonyl ligands in organometallic complexes. When amine N-oxides were used as an oxidant in the reaction of isocyanides with amines, the system was able to produce ureas from a variety of isocyanides, amines, and amine N-oxides. In addition, the rate was found to generally increase as the amine N-oxide concentration increased, and decrease with increased concentrations of the amine. Mechanistic studies revealed that the reaction likely involves transfer of an oxygen atom from the amine N-oxide to the adsorbed isocyanide to generate an isocyanate intermediate. Subsequent nucleophilic attack by the amine yields the urea. This is in contrast to the bulk gold-catalyzed reaction mechanism of isocyanides with amines and oxygen. Formation of urea in this case was proposed to proceed through a diaminocarbene intermediate. Moreover, formation of the proposed isocyanate intermediate is consistent with the reactions of metal carbonyl ligands, which are isoelectronic to isocyanides. Nucleophilic attack at coordinated CO by amine N-oxides produces CO{sub 2} and is analogous to the production of an isocyanate in this gold system. When the bulk gold-catalyzed oxidative dehydrogenation of amines was examined with amine N-oxides, the same products were afforded as when O{sub 2} was used as the oxidant. When the two types of oxidants were directly compared using the same reaction system and conditions, it was found that the oxidative dehydrogenation of dibenzylamine to Nbenzylidenebenzylamine, with N-methylmorpholine N-oxide (NMMO), was nearly quantitative (96%) within 24 h. However, the reaction with oxygen was much slower, with only a 52% yield of imine product over the same time period. Moreover, the rate of reaction was found to be influenced by the nature of the amine N-oxide. For example, the use of the weakly basic pyridine N-oxide (PyNO) led to an imine yield of only 6% after 24 h. A comparison of amine N-oxide and O2 was also examined in the oxidation of PhCH{sub 2}OH to PhCHO catalyzed by bulk gold. In this reaction, a 52% yield of the aldehyde was achieved when NMMO was used, while only a 7% product yield was afforded when O{sub 2} was the oxidant after 48 h. The bulk gold-catalyzed oxidative dehydrogenation of cyclic amines generates amidines, which upon treatment with Aerosil and water were found to undergo hydrolysis to produce lactams. Moreover, 5-, 6-, and 7-membered lactams could be prepared through a one-pot reaction of cyclic amines by treatment with oxygen, water, bulk gold, and Aerosil. This method is much more atom economical than industrial processes, does not require corrosive acids, and does not generate undesired byproducts. Additionally, the gold and Aerosil catalysts can be readily separated from the reaction mixture. The second project involved studying iron(III) tetraphenylporphyrin chloride, Fe(TPP)Cl, as a homogeneous catalyst for the generation of carbenes from diazo reagents and their reaction with heteroatom compounds. Fe(TPP)Cl, efficiently catalyzed the insertion of carbenes derived from methyl 2-phenyldiazoacetates into O-H bonds of aliphatic and aromatic alcohols. Fe(TPP)Cl was also found to be an effective catalyst for tandem N-H and O-H insertion/cyclization reactions when 1,2-diamines and 1,2-alcoholamines were treated with diazo reagents. This approach provides a one-pot process for synthesizing piperazinones and morpholinones and related analogues such as quinoxalinones and benzoxazin-2-ones.
