Eva Van Hende

Pyridinium Ylids in Heterocyclic Synthesis

Pyridinium ylids are versatile tools in organic synthesis. The stability of pyridinium ylids and their generation is commented. This review gives an overview of the possible modes through which pyridinium ylids can react. It is demonstrated that pyridinium ylids are suitable building blocks for the synthesis of indolizines, cyclopropanes, 2,3-dihydrofurans, 2(1H)-pyridin(ethio)ones, mono- & oligopyridines, pyranonaphthoquinones, nitrones and azepines.

New Entries toward 3,3-Difluoropiperidines

Difluoropiperidines attract considerable interest from organic and medicinal chemists, but their synthesis is often problematic. This paper describes a new synthetic pathway toward valuable 3,3-difluoropiperidines starting from suitable delta-chloro-alpha,alpha-difluoroimines. The latter imines can be synthesized via electrophilic fluorination of the corresponding delta-chloroimines using NFSI (N-fluorodibenzenesulfonimide) in acetonitrile. After hydride reduction of the imino bond and subsequent intramolecular substitution of the chloride atom, new 3,3-difluoropiperidines were obtained in good yields. In addition, this methodology was applied to establish the first synthesis of N-protected 3,3-difluoropipecolic acid, a new fluorinated amino acid.

Synthesis of 1-Boc-3-fluoroazetidine-3-carboxylic acid

Synthetic strategies toward 3-fluoroazetidine-3-carboxylic acid, a new cyclic fluorinated beta-amino acid with high potential as building block in medicinal chemistry, were evaluated. The successful pathway includes the bromofluorination of N-(diphenylmethylidene)-2-(4-methoxyphenoxymethyl)-2-propenylamine, yielding 1-diphenylmethyl-3-hydroxymethyl-3-fluoroazetidine after reduction of the imino bond, ring closure, and removal of the 4-methoxybenzyl group. Changing the N-protecting group to a Boc-group allows further oxidation to 1-Boc-3-fluoroazetidine-3-carboxylic acid, a new fluorinated heterocyclic amino acid.