Chapter 1 . A brief survey of ruthenium-catalyzed transformations is included.
Chapter 2 . Described in this chapter is the development of the first intramolecular cycloaddition of cyclobutadiene and an olefin. These reactions result in cyclobutene formation which were further functionalized through thermolysis to generate substituted 1,3-cyclohexadienes.*
Chapter 3 . Selective ring-opening metathesis of cyclobutenes is demonstrated as a direct route to selectively substituted 1,5-dienes which are further transformed stereospecifically to 1,5-cyclooctadiene systems.*
Chapter 4 . During investigation of selective cyclobutene ring-opening metathesis, intramolecular olefin coordination to ruthenium was observed and confirmed through crystal structure analysis.
Chapter 5 . A novel usage of Grubbs ruthenium catalyst is investigated. This transformation is characterized as a Kharasch addition of chloroform to mono- and 1,1-disubstituted olefins.*
*Please refer to dissertation for diagrams.
