Marc Taillefer

Copper-Catalyzed Insertion into Heteroatom–Hydrogen Bonds with Trifluorodiazoalkanes

Copper-catalyzed Si-H, B-H, P-H, S-H, and N-H insertion reactions of 2,2,2-trifluoro-1-diazoethane and 1-aryl 2,2,2-trifluorodiazoethanes generated a large number of new fluorine-containing chemical entities for medicinal chemists. With selected Si-H and B-H insertion reactions, we demonstrate successful extension to asymmetric catalysis.

Synthesis of the sodium diphenylbis(cyanamido)phosphonium diylide by a new variation of the Staudinger reaction

The first example of a stabilized diaminophonium diazaylide, sodium diphenylbis(cyanamido)phosphonium diylide, has been synthesized by a new variation of the Staudinger reaction; the corresponding copper complex can be described as a discrete dimeric unit with [Ph2P(NCN)2]– in both uni- and bi-dentate modes (X-ray structure).