Researcher ORCID Identifier

0009-0005-5781-2266

Graduation Year

2025

Date of Submission

12-2024

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Biochemistry

Reader 1

Anna G. Wenzel

Reader 2

Sadie C. Otte

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Abstract

Amines are a powerful functional group bearing great significance in daily life, with upwards of 40% of pharmaceutical products and 20% of agrochemicals possessing chiral amines. The hydroamination of olefins is one of several methods that generate an amine from an organic source, directly adding nitrogen across a carbon-carbon pi bond with complete atom economy. Traditional methods of hydroamination are challenged by the use of expensive transition metal catalysts facing limited supply. We herein report a silver-catalyzed, intermolecular Markovnikov hydroamination of styrene using benzyl carbamate as the nitrogen source. This methodology has proven to offer a more sustainable and economically practical alternative to traditional catalytic routes. The reaction exhibits stellar regioselectivity, providing the desired product in moderate to good yields. Preliminary mechanistic studies suggest that the reaction proceeds via the formation of a nitrogen radical and undergoes enhanced conversion in the presence of mild, inexpensive oxidants.

Available for download on Wednesday, December 09, 2026

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