Graham Pattison

Enantioselective Rhodium-Catalyzed Addition of Arylboronic Acids to Alkenylheteroarenes

In the presence of a rhodium complex containing a newly developed chiral diene ligand, alkenes activated by a range of π-deficient or π-excessive heteroarenes engage in highly enantioselective conjugate additions with various arylboronic acids.

Enantioselective Rh(I)-catalyzed cyclization of arylboron compounds onto ketones.

Rhodium complexes based upon chiral sulfinamide-alkene, TADDOL-derived phosphoramidite, or diene ligands catalyze cyclizations of arylboron compounds onto ketones, generating a variety of products containing five-, six-, or seven-membered rings with good yields and high enantioselectivities.

One-pot synthesis of difluoromethyl ketones by a difluorination/fragmentation process

Difluoromethyl ketones are an under-studied class of ketones which have great potential as useful building blocks for materials and drug design. Here we report a simple and convenient synthesis of this class of compounds via a one-pot difluorination/fragmentation of 1-trifluoromethyl-1,3-diketones which should now allow the chemistry of difluoromethyl ketones to be fully developed.

Transition-Metal-Free Homologative Cross-Coupling of Aldehydes and Ketones with Geminal Bis(boron) Compounds

We report a transition-metal-free coupling of aldehydes and ketones with geminal bis(boron) building blocks which provides the coupled, homologated carbonyl compound upon oxidation. This reaction not only extends an alkyl chain containing a carbonyl group, it also simultaneously introduces a new carbonyl substituent. We demonstrate that enantiopure aldehydes with an enolizable stereogenic center undergo this reaction with complete retention of stereochemistry.

A Coupling Approach for the Generation of α,α-Bis(enolate) Equivalents: Regioselective Synthesis of gem-Difunctionalized Ketones

Regioselective α,α-difunctionalization adjacent to a ketone is a significant synthetic challenge. Here, we present a solution to this problem through the transition-metal-free coupling of esters with geminal bis(boron) compounds. This forms an α,α-bis(enolate) equivalent which can be trapped with electrophiles including alkyl halides and fluorinating agents. This presents an efficient, convergent synthetic strategy for the synthesis of unsymmetrical blocked ketones.

9,10-Dioxa-1,2-diaza-anthracene derivatives from tetrafluoropyridazine

Summary Reaction of tetrafluoropyridazine with catechol gives a tricyclic 9,10-dioxa-1,2-diaza-anthracene system by a sequential nucleophilic aromatic substitution ring annelation process, further extending the use of perfluoroheteroaromatic derivatives for the synthesis of unusual polyfunctional heterocyclic architectures. The tricyclic scaffold reacts with amines and sodium ethoxide providing a short series of functional 9,10-dioxa-1,2-diaza-anthracene systems.

Conformational preferences of α-fluoroketones may influence their reactivity

Fluorine has been shown in many cases to impart specific and predictable effects on molecular conformation. Here it is shown that these conformational effects may have an influence on reactivity through studying the relative reactivity of various α-halogenated ketones towards borohydride reduction. These results demonstrate that the α-fluoro ketones are in fact a little less reactive than the corresponding α-chloro and α-bromo derivatives. It is suggested, supported by computation, that this effect is due to reactive conformations in which the C–X bond is orthogonal to the carbonyl group for good orbital overlap being disfavoured in the case of fluoro ketones.