Chiral cyclopalladium (II) complexes promoted asymmetric synthesis of optically active functionalized bidentate phosphine ligands

Abstract

I owe a debt of gratitude to many people at Nanyang Technological University for their support and encouragement throughout the years I worked on this thesis. First of all, I am greatly thankful to my supervisor, Prof. Leung Pak Hing, for his instruction and guidance during my whole research work. He for many years encouraged me with his understanding in the value of this project and supported me with his excellent suggestions for improvement and with his strong academic knowledge through chiral phosphine chemistry. Without his enthusiasm and encouragement, this work could not have been done. Ms. Han Yanhui from NMR Spectroscopy Laboratory offered valuable advice on how to operate various NMR experiment and how to interpret 1D and 2D spectra. Dr. Kok Lip Lin, Ms. Tan Geok Kheng, Prof. Mok Kum-Fun and Dr. Li Yongxin from X-ray Crystallography Laboratory offered excellent expertise and advice on X-ray crystallography, and solved the crystal structures, which is very important to the characterization of chiral complexes. I am very grateful to them. Thanks also go to the staff members of the Mass Spectrometry Laboratory and the Elemental Analysis Laboratories for their contribution and assistance. I am particularly thankful to my senior laboratory mates and good friends, Dr.