Bernd Plietker

The acid accelerated ruthenium-catalysed dihydroxylation. Scope and limitations

Recently, we discovered a significant rate acceleration in RuO4-catalysed dihydroxylations of olefins by addition of Bronsted-acids resulting in a reduction of the catalyst loading to only 0.5 mol%. The present paper gives a full account on the optimisation protocol that led to the discovery of the beneficial influence of protic acids. A strong focus is set on the detailed description of the influence of different reaction parameters on both reactivity and selectivity. In the second part an intense investigation of scope and limitations will be presented. The results provided in this manuscript might lead to a deeper understanding of competing processes that influence the selectivity in RuO4-catalysed dihydroxylations.

The RuO4-catalysed dihydroxylation, ketohydroxylation and mono oxidation—novel oxidation reactions for the synthesis of diols and α-hydroxy ketones

Alpha-hydroxy ketones are versatile intermediates for the synthesis of complex molecular architectures and subunits of a variety of natural products. Different approaches towards the synthesis of this important functional group combination have been elaborated. The present article summarises our research on the field of RuO4-catalysed oxidations of alkenes that resulted in the development of the first RuO4-catalysed ketohydroxylation of olefins. Mechanistic investigations of both dihydroxylation and ketohydroxylation led to the discovery of the first regioselective catalytic mono oxidation of vic-diols, which was applied in a two-step sequence of asymmetric dihydroxylation and regioselective mono oxidation to furnish enantiopure alpha-hydroxy ketones with both predictable regioselectivity and absolute configuration.

General Stereodivergent Enantioselective Total Synthetic Approach toward Macrosphelides A-G and M.

A straightforward enantioselective total synthesis algorithm for the preparation of 8 out of 13 macrosphelides within 9-11 steps starting from tert-butyl sorbate is presented. The use of a cyclic sulfate as both protecting and reactivity directing group is the key element within this algorithm. A high-pressure transesterification allows for the selective ring-enlargement of the 15-membered macrosphelides into the 16-membered counterparts. The absolute configurations of the natural products were unambiguously assigned both by the chemical synthesis and by X-ray structure analysis.

Annelated Cyclobutanes by Fe-Catalyzed Cycloisomerization of Enyne Acetates

Cationic Fe complexes of the general type [(Ph3 P)2 Fe(CO)(NO)]X (X=BF4 , BArF4 ) catalyze the redox-neutral cycloisomerization of 1,6- and 1,7-enyneacetates to afford bicyclic cyclobutanes under mild conditions in good yields and diastereoselectivities.