Jon A. Tunge

Transition Metal-Catalyzed Decarboxylative Allylation and Benzylation Reactions

A review. Transition metal catalyzed decarboxylative allylations, benzylations, and interceptive allylations are reviewed.

Asymmetric Cycloadditions of Palladium-Polarized Aza-o-xylylenes

Vinyl benzoxazinanones undergo highly enantioselective decarboxylative cycloadditions with electron-deficient olefins in the presence of palladium catalysts. Palladium induces the decarboxylation of the parent benzoxazinanones under mild conditions to produce an intermediate that can be described as a polarized aza-o-xylylene. These intermediates undergo a formal [4 + 2] cycloaddition with good Michael acceptors to produce highly substituted hydroquinolines with excellent regio-, diastereo-, and enantioselectivities.

Decarboxylative Allylation of Amino Alkanoic Acids and Esters via Dual Catalysis

A combination of photoredox and palladium catalysis has been employed to facilitate the room temperature decarboxylative allylation of recalcitrant α-amino and phenylacetic allyl esters. This operationally simple process produces CO2 as the only byproduct and provides direct access to allylated alkanes. After photochemical oxidation, the carboxylate undergoes radical decarboxylation to site-specifically generate radical intermediates which undergo allylation. A radical dual catalysis mechanism is proposed. Free phenylacetic acids were also allylated utilizing similar reactions conditions.

Decarboxylative Benzylations of Alkynes and Ketones

Benzyl esters of propiolic and beta-keto acids undergo catalytic decarboxylative coupling when treated with appropriate palladium catalysts. Such decarboxylative couplings allow the benzylation of alkynes without the use of strong bases and/or organometallics. This allows the synthesis of sensitive benzylic alkynes that are prone to undergo isomerizations under basic conditions. Additionally, decarboxylation facilitates the site-specific benzylation of diketones and ketoesters under mild, base-free conditions. Ultimately, the methodology described expands our ability to cross-couple medicinally relevant heterocycles.

Formation of N-Alkylpyrroles via Intermolecular Redox Amination

A wide variety of aldehydes, ketones, and lactols undergo redox amination when allowed to react with 3-pyrroline in the presence of a mild Brønsted acid catalyst. This reaction utilizes the inherent reducing power of 3-pyrroline to perform the equivalent of a reductive amination to form alkyl pyrroles. In doing so, the reaction avoids stoichiometric reducing agents that are typically associated with reductive aminations. Moreover, the redox amination protocol allows access to alkyl pyrroles that cannot be made via standard reductive amination.

Stereospecific Decarboxylative Allylation of Sulfones

Allyl sulfonylacetic esters undergo highly stereospecific, palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative allylation. The reaction allows the stereospecific formation of tertiary homoallylic sulfones in high yield. In contrast to related reactions that proceed at -100 degrees C and require highly basic preformed organometallics, the decarboxylative coupling described herein occurs under mild nonbasic conditions and requires no stoichiometric additives. Allylation of the intermediate alpha-sulfonyl anion is more rapid than racemization, leading to a highly enantiospecific process. Density functional theory calculations indicate that the barrier for racemization is 9.9 kcal/mol, so the barrier for allylation must be <9.9 kcal/mol.

A Homogeneous, Recyclable Rhodium(I) Catalyst for the Hydroarylation of Michael Acceptors

A robust and practical polymer-supported, recyclable biphephos rhodium(I) catalyst has been developed. Control of polymer molecular weight allowed the tuning of solubility such that the polymer-supported catalyst is soluble in nonpolar solvents and not soluble in polar solvents. Thus, catalytic addition of aryl- and vinylboronic acids to enones occurs under completely homogeneous conditions and catalyst recycle can be achieved by simple precipitation and filtration.

Identification of sulfation sites of metabolites and prediction of the compounds’ biological effects

Characterizing the biological effects of metabolic transformations (or biotransformation) is one of the key steps in developing safe and effective pharmaceuticals. Sulfate conjugation, one of the major phase II biotransformations, is the focus of this study. While this biotransformation typically facilitates excretion of metabolites by making the compounds more water soluble, sulfation may also lead to bioactivation, producing carcinogenic products. The end result, excretion or bioactivation, depends on the structural features of the sulfation sites, so obtaining the structure of the sulfated metabolites is critically important. We describe herein a very simple, high-throughput procedure for using mass spectrometry to identify the structure—and thus the biological fate—of sulfated metabolites. We have chemically synthesized and analyzed libraries of compounds representing all the biologically relevant types of sulfation products, and using the mass spectral data, the structural features present in these analytes can be reliably determined, with a 97% success rate. This work represents the first example of a high-throughput analysis that can identify the structure of sulfated metabolites and predict their biological effects.

Regiospecific Decarboxylative Allylation of Nitriles

Palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative alpha-allylation of nitriles readily occurs with use of Pd(2)(dba)(3) and rac-BINAP. This catalyst mixture also allows the highly regiospecific alpha-allylation of nitriles in the presence of much more acidic alpha-protons. Thus, the reported method provides access to compounds that are not readily available via base-mediated allylation chemistries. Lastly, mechanistic investigations indicate that there is a competition between C- and N-allylation of an intermediate nitrile-stabilized anion and that N-allylation is followed by a rapid [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement.

Regioselective iron-catalyzed decarboxylative allylic etherification.

An anionic iron complex catalyzes the decarboxylative allylation of phenols to form allylic ethers in high yield. The allylation is regioselective rather than regiospecific. This suggests that the allylation proceeds through pi-allyl iron intermediates in contrast to related allylations of carbon nucleophiles that have been proposed to proceed via sigma-allyl complexes. Ultimately, iron catalysts have the potential to replace more expensive palladium catalysts that are typically utilized for decarboxylative couplings.