Martin D. Eastgate

A general alkyl-alkyl cross-coupling enabled by redox-active esters and alkylzinc reagents

Carbon links without helpful neighbors Its an irony of modern organic chemistry that the simplest-looking carbon-carbon bonds are often the hardest to make. Most reactions owe their efficiency to neighboring double bonds or oxygen and nitrogen atoms that linger in the products. Qin et al. now present a broadly applicable protocol for making C-C bonds in the absence of such surrounding help. The nickel-catalyzed process couples a zinc-activated carbon center to an ester thats poised to lose CO2. The ready availability of numerous carboxylic acids (which are easily converted to esters) contributes to the reactions versatility. Science, this issue p. 801 A versatile nickel-catalyzed reaction forms carbon–carbon bonds, with no need for adjacent functionality in the product. Alkyl carboxylic acids are ubiquitous in all facets of chemical science, from natural products to polymers, and represent an ideal starting material with which to forge new connections. This study demonstrates how the same activating principles used for decades to make simple C–N (amide) bonds from carboxylic acids with loss of water can be used to make C–C bonds through coupling with dialkylzinc reagents and loss of carbon dioxide. This disconnection strategy benefits from the use of a simple, inexpensive nickel catalyst and exhibits a remarkably broad scope across a range of substrates (>70 examples).

Scalable and sustainable electrochemical allylic C–H oxidation

New methods and strategies for the direct functionalization of C–H bonds are beginning to reshape the field of retrosynthetic analysis, affecting the synthesis of natural products, medicines and materials. The oxidation of allylic systems has played a prominent role in this context as possibly the most widely applied C–H functionalization, owing to the utility of enones and allylic alcohols as versatile intermediates, and their prevalence in natural and unnatural materials. Allylic oxidations have featured in hundreds of syntheses, including some natural product syntheses regarded as “classics”. Despite many attempts to improve the efficiency and practicality of this transformation, the majority of conditions still use highly toxic reagents (based around toxic elements such as chromium or selenium) or expensive catalysts (such as palladium or rhodium). These requirements are problematic in industrial settings; currently, no scalable and sustainable solution to allylic oxidation exists. This oxidation strategy is therefore rarely used for large-scale synthetic applications, limiting the adoption of this retrosynthetic strategy by industrial scientists. Here we describe an electrochemical C–H oxidation strategy that exhibits broad substrate scope, operational simplicity and high chemoselectivity. It uses inexpensive and readily available materials, and represents a scalable allylic C–H oxidation (demonstrated on 100 grams), enabling the adoption of this C–H oxidation strategy in large-scale industrial settings without substantial environmental impact.

Practical Ni-Catalyzed Aryl–Alkyl Cross-Coupling of Secondary Redox-Active Esters

A new transformation is presented that enables chemists to couple simple alkyl carboxylic acids with aryl zinc reagents under Ni-catalysis. The success of this reaction hinges on the unique use of redox-active esters that allow one to employ such derivatives as alkyl halides surrogates. The chemistry exhibits broad substrate scope and features a high degree of practicality. The simple procedure and extremely inexpensive nature of both the substrates and pre-catalyst (NiCl2·6H2O, ca.

A Mild, Ferrocene-Catalyzed C–H Imidation of (Hetero)Arenes

9.5/mol) bode well for the immediate widespread adoption of this method.

Regioselective Bromination of Fused Heterocyclic N-Oxides

A simple method for direct C–H imidation is reported using a new perester-based self-immolating reagent and a base-metal catalyst. The succinimide products obtained can be easily deprotected in situ (if desired) to reveal the corresponding anilines directly. The scope of the reaction is broad, the conditions are extremely mild, and the reaction is tolerant of oxidizable and acid-labile functionality, multiple heteroatoms, and aryl iodides. Mechanistic studies indicate that ferrocene (Cp2Fe) plays the role of an electron shuttle in the decomposition of the perester reagent, delivering a succinimidyl radical ready to add to an aromatic system.

Palau’chlor: A Practical and Reactive Chlorinating Reagent

A mild method for the regioselective C2-bromination of fused azine N-oxides is presented, employing tosic anhydride as the activator and tetra-n-butylammonium bromide as the nucleophilic bromide source. The C2-brominated compounds are produced in moderate to excellent yields and with excellent regioselectivity in most cases. The potential extension of this method to other halogens, effecting C2-chlorination with Ts(2)O/TBACl is also presented. Finally, this method could be incorporated into a viable one-pot oxidation/bromination process, using methyltrioxorhenium/urea hydropgen peroxide as the oxidant.

Ligand-Promoted Meta-C–H Arylation of Anilines, Phenols, and Heterocycles

Unlike its other halogen atom siblings, the utility of chlorinated arenes and (hetero)arenes are twofold: they are useful in tuning electronic structure as well as acting as points for diversification via cross-coupling. Herein we report the invention of a new guanidine-based chlorinating reagent, CBMG or “Palau’chlor”, inspired by a key chlorospirocyclization en route to pyrrole imidazole alkaloids. This direct, mild, operationally simple, and safe chlorinating method is compatible with a range of nitrogen-containing heterocycles as well as select classes of arenes, conjugated π-systems, sulfonamides, and silyl enol ethers. Comparisons with other known chlorinating reagents revealed CBMG to be the premier reagent.

Ligand-Promotedortho-CH Amination with Pd Catalysts

Here we report the development of a versatile 3-acetylamino-2-hydroxypyridine class of ligands that promote meta-C-H arylation of anilines, heterocyclic aromatic amines, phenols, and 2-benzyl heterocycles using norbornene as a transient mediator. More than 120 examples are presented, demonstrating this ligand scaffold enables a wide substrate and coupling partner scope. Meta-C-H arylation with heterocyclic aryl iodides as coupling partners is also realized for the first time using this ligand. The utility for this transformation for drug discovery is showcased by allowing the meta-C-H arylation of a lenalidomide derivative. The first steps toward a silver-free protocol for this reaction are also demonstrated.

On the mechanism of Lewis base catalyzed aldol addition reactions: kinetic and spectroscopic investigations using rapid-injection NMR.

2,4,6-Trimethoxypyridine is identified as an efficient ligand for promoting a Pd-catalyzed ortho-C-H amination of both benzamides and triflyl-protected benzylamines. This finding provides guidance for the development of ligands that can improve or enable Pd(II)-catalyzed Csp2-H activation reactions directed by weakly coordinating functional groups.

Mono-Oxidation of Bidentate Bis-phosphines in Catalyst Activation: Kinetic and Mechanistic Studies of a Pd/Xantphos-Catalyzed C–H Functionalization

The mechanistic foundations of the Lewis base catalyzed aldol addition reactions have been investigated. From a combination of low-temperature spectroscopic studies ((29)Si and (31)P NMR) and kinetic analyses using a rapid-injection NMR apparatus (RINMR), a correlation of the ground states and transition structures for the aldolization reactions has been formulated. The aldol addition of the tert-butylsilyl ketene acetal of tert-butyl propanoate with 1-naphthaldehyde is efficiently catalyzed by a combination of silicon tetrachloride and chiral phosphoramide Lewis bases. The rates and selectivities of the aldol additions are highly dependent on the structure of the Lewis bases: bisphosphoramides give the highest rate and selectivity, whereas a related monophosphoramide reacts slowly and with low selectivity. The monophosphoramide shows no nonlinear behavior. All of the additions show a first-order kinetic dependence on silyl ketene acetal and 1-naphthaldehyde and a zeroth-order dependence on silicon tetrachloride. The kinetic order in catalyst is structure dependent and is either half-, two-thirds-, or first-order. All of the phosphoramides are saturated with silicon tetrachloride in some form, and the resting-state species are mixtures of monomeric and dimeric, pentacoordinate cationic, or hexacoordinate neutral complexes. These data allow the formulation of a unified mechanistic scheme based on the postulate of a common reactive intermediate for all catalysts.