UC Berkeley

The following dissertation discusses methods for the addition of NH bonds of amides and indoles to alkenes, CH bonds of heteroarenes to bicycloalkenes, and OH bonds to unactivated alkenes. The final section describes a method for the oxidative coupling of unactivated alkenes with furans to generate vinylfurans. All of the processes, discussed herein, are catalyzed by iridium bisphosphine complexes. Mechanistic investigations of the catalytic processes provide information on elementary organometallic reactions such as oxidative addition of XH bonds, and the subsequent reactivity of the organometallic products with alkenes.