Michele Gatti

Palladium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Conjugate Addition of Arylboronic Acids to Five-, Six-, and Seven-Membered β-Substituted Cyclic Enones: Enantioselective Construction of All-Carbon Quaternary Stereocenters

The first enantioselective Pd-catalyzed construction of all-carbon quaternary stereocenters via 1,4-addition of arylboronic acids to β-substituted cyclic enones is reported. Reaction of a wide range of arylboronic acids and cyclic enones using a catalyst prepared from Pd(OCOCF(3))(2) and a chiral pyridinooxazoline ligand yields enantioenriched products bearing benzylic stereocenters. Notably, this transformation is tolerant to air and moisture, providing a practical and operationally simple method of synthesizing enantioenriched all-carbon quaternary stereocenters.

A chiral bis-sulfoxide ligand in late-transition metal catalysis; rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric addition of arylboronic acids to electron-deficient olefins.

A bis-sulfoxide with a binaphthyl backbone is introduced as a readily available, chiral ligand entity in late-transition metal catalysis. Ligand p-tol-BINASO [where p-tol-BINASO is 1,1‘-binaphthalene-2,2‘-diyl-bis-(p-tolylsulfoxide)] is obtained in pure form in one single synthetic step from relatively cheap, commercially available starting materials. Precatalyst [{(P,R,R)-p-tol-BINASO}RhCl]2 was synthesized in high yield and structurally characterized by X-ray diffraction, and structural data were compared to the free ligand. The precatalyst shows both excellent reactivity and selectivity in the asymmetric 1,4-addition of arylboronic acids to cyclic α,β-unsaturated ketones and esters.

Unprecedented Selectivity via Electronic Substrate Recognition in the 1,4‐Addition to Cyclic Olefins Using a Chiral Disulfoxide Rhodium Catalyst

From zero to hero? Sulfoxides are generally not considered useful ligand entities in asymmetric metal catalysis. However, a chiral disulfoxide as a chelating ligand in the rhodium-catalyzed 1,4-addition of aryl boronic acids to cyclic, alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones and esters gives impressive catalytic results, thus opening the door to future applications of this new chiral ligand class.

Mechanism and Enantioselectivity in Palladium-Catalyzed Conjugate Addition of Arylboronic Acids to β-Substituted Cyclic Enones: Insights from Computation and Experiment

Enantioselective conjugate additions of arylboronic acids to β-substituted cyclic enones have been previously reported from our laboratories. Air- and moisture-tolerant conditions were achieved with a catalyst derived in situ from palladium(II) trifluoroacetate and the chiral ligand (S)-t-BuPyOx. We now report a combined experimental and computational investigation on the mechanism, the nature of the active catalyst, the origins of the enantioselectivity, and the stereoelectronic effects of the ligand and the substrates of this transformation. Enantioselectivity is controlled primarily by steric repulsions between the t-Bu group of the chiral ligand and the α-methylene hydrogens of the enone substrate in the enantiodetermining carbopalladation step. Computations indicate that the reaction occurs via formation of a cationic arylpalladium(II) species, and subsequent carbopalladation of the enone olefin forms the key carbon-carbon bond. Studies of nonlinear effects and stoichiometric and catalytic reactions of isolated (PyOx)Pd(Ph)I complexes show that a monomeric arylpalladium-ligand complex is the active species in the selectivity-determining step. The addition of water and ammonium hexafluorophosphate synergistically increases the rate of the reaction, corroborating the hypothesis that a cationic palladium species is involved in the reaction pathway. These additives also allow the reaction to be performed at 40 °C and facilitate an expanded substrate scope.

Identification and Characterization of a New Family of Catalytically Highly Active Imidazolin-2-ylidenes

A new class of easily accessible and stable imidazolin-2-ylidenes has been synthesized where the side chains are comprised of substituted naphthyl units. Introduction of the naphthyl groups generates C 2 -symmetric ( rac) and C s- symmetric ( meso) atropisomers, and interconversion between the isomers is studied in detail both experimentally and computationally. Complete characterization of the carbenes includes rare examples of crystallographically characterized saturated NHC structures. Steric properties of the ligands and an investigation of their stability are also presented. In catalysis, the new ligands show versatility comparable to the most widely used NHCs IMes/SIMes or IPr/SIPr. Excellent catalytic results are obtained when either the NHC salts (ring-opening alkylation of epoxides), NHC-modified palladium compounds (C-C and C-N cross-couplings), or NHC-ruthenium complexes (ring-closing metathesis, RCM) are employed. In several cases, this new ligand family provides catalytic systems of higher reactivity than that observed with previously reported NHC compounds.

Matching the Chirality of Monodentate N-heterocyclic Carbene Ligands: A Case Study on Well-Defined Palladium Complexes for the Asymmetric α-Arylation of Amides

N-Heterocyclic carbene ligands derived from C(2)-symmetric diamines with naphthyl side chains are introduced as chiral monodentate ligands, and their palladium complexes (NHC)Pd(cin)Cl are prepared. These compounds exist as a mixture of diastereomers, and the palladium complexes can be successfully separated and their absolute stereochemistry assigned. When used in the asymmetric intramolecular alpha-arylation of amides, oxindoles with quaternary carbon centers can be obtained in high yield and selectivity when correctly matching the chirality of the NHC complexes.

Highly Chemo- and Enantioselective Synthesis of 3-Allyl-3-aryl Oxindoles via the Direct Palladium-Catalyzed α-Arylation of Amides

A new NHC x Pd-catalyzed asymmetric alpha-arylation of amides is reported that gives direct access to synthetically valuable, allylated oxindoles with quaternary carbon centers. The reaction is made possible by the introduction of a new chiral NHC ligand. The palladium complexes derived therefrom combine excellent reactivity with high chemo- and enantioselectivity for the title transformation.

Impact of NHC ligand conformation and solvent concentration on the ruthenium-catalyzed ring-closing metathesis reaction

Two saturated N-heterocyclic carbene ligands with substituted naphthyl side chains were used for the preparation of Blechert-type ruthenium metathesis precatalysts. The resulting conformers of the complexes were separated and unambiguously assigned by X-ray diffraction studies. All new complexes were compared in terms of activity to the original, SIMes-derived Blechert catalyst and were shown to be superior. A study on the impact of solvent concentration in RCM reactions using the most active of these new catalysts ultimately led to the ring closing of a variety of substrates at very low catalyst loadings.

Palladium‐Catalyzed Asymmetric Conjugate Addition of Arylboronic Acids to Heterocyclic Acceptors

Flava Flavanone: Asymmetric conjugate additions to chromones and 4-quinolones are reported utilizing a single catalyst system formed in situ from Pd(OCOCF(3))(2) and (S)-tBuPyOX. Notably, these reactions are performed in wet solvent under ambient atmosphere, and employ readily available arylboronic acids as the nucleophile, thus providing ready access to these asymmetric heterocycles (see scheme).

Improving Grubbs' II type ruthenium catalysts by appropriately modifying the N-heterocyclic carbene ligand

The introduction of N-heterocyclic carbene ligands that incorporate correctly substituted naphthyl side chains leads to increased activity and stability in second generation ruthenium metathesis catalysts.