Executive Summary : | Lewis acids and bases undoubtedly play an important role in all areas of chemistry. Lewis acid catalysts based on transition metal complexes have extensively been employed as catalysts in various catalytic organic transformations. They were favoured in such reactions because of their variable oxidation states, availability of d-electrons and tuneable coordination environment. Lewis base catalysts also play a vital role in organic synthesis, where a Lewis base enhances the rate of a given chemical reaction by donating a pair of electrons to an acceptor atom of one of the substrates. Nowadays, a great attention has been paid in the synthesis and application of bifunctional catalysts, which can activate substrates simultaneously at the Lewis base and the Lewis acid moieties in the catalyst. In this context, the design and synthesis of a "bifunctional catalyst" containing of Lewis base and Lewis acid fragment, which simultaneously activates electrophiles and nucleophiles at definite positions, is highly demanded. Although the bifunctional catalysts (complexes) of transition metal were established as effective catalysts, their toxic properties, scarce in availability, and cost demanded in search of alternatives which may overcome these issues. In this context, an attractive alternative would be p-block elements which may result in environmentally friendly and sustainable catalysts. Among the p-block elements, group 14 elements may overcome some of the above-mentioned concerns and have recently been getting special attention. However, bifunctional catalysts of Si(IV), Ge(IV) and Sn(IV) containing a Lewis acid and Lewis base moieties are not known till date. Considering these facts, herein, I propose to develop a family of new halogenated ligands with anchoring Lewis bases on it and their corresponding metal complexes with group 14 elements. A series of polydentate ligands will be synthesized and it will be used to prepare the desired complexes. All ligands and complexes will be characterized by NMR spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and elemental analysis. Their solid-state structures will be confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The phase purity of the complexes will be verified by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) measurement. Finally, the catalytic activity of the complexes will be screened for cyanosilylation and hydroboration reactions. The successful implementation of the project will result in new organotetrel(IV) compounds which are very important to fundamental chemistry as well as application in chemistry. The resulting complexes will definitely show catalytic activities toward cyanosilylation and hydroboration reactions of carbonyl compounds. If any of the newly developed complexes exhibit catalytic activities appropriate for industrial applications, a patent application will be filed first, followed by the identification of a suitable industry partner for the commercialization of the material/product. |