Oliver Reiser

Nanoparticles as Semi‐Heterogeneous Catalyst Supports

Nanoparticles can serve as semi-heterogeneous supports since they readily disperse in common solvents and combine high surface area with excellent accessibility. Reversible agglomeration through solvent changes and magnetic separation provide technically attractive alternatives to classical catalyst filtration. This account places emphasis on recent developments in this emerging area.

Visible Light Photoredox Catalysis: Generation and Addition of N-Aryltetrahydroisoquinoline-Derived α-Amino Radicals to Michael Acceptors

The photoredox-catalyzed coupling of N-aryltetrahydroisoquinoline and Michael acceptors was achieved using Ru(bpy)(3)Cl(2) or [Ir(ppy)(2)(dtb-bpy)]PF(6) in combination with irradiation at 455 nm generated by a blue LED, demonstrating the trapping of visible light generated α-amino radicals. While intermolecular reactions lead to products formed by a conjugate addition, in intramolecular variants further dehydrogenation occurs, leading directly to 5,6-dihydroindolo[2,1-a]tetrahydroisoquinolines, which are relevant as potential immunosuppressive agents.

Polymer- and Dendrimer-Coated Magnetic Nanoparticles as Versatile Supports for Catalysts, Scavengers, and Reagents

The work-up of chemical reactions by standard techniques is often time consuming and energy demanding, especially when chemists have to guarantee low levels of metal contamination in the products. Therefore, scientists need new ideas to rapidly purify reaction mixtures that are both economically and environmentally benign. One intriguing approach is to tether functionalities that are required to perform organic reactions to magnetic nanoparticles, for example, catalysts, reagents, scavengers, or chelators. This strategy allows researchers to quickly separate active agents from reaction mixtures by exploiting the magnetic properties of the support. In this Account, we discuss the main attributes of magnetic supports and describe how we can make the different nanomagnets accessible by surface functionalization. Arguably the most prominent magnetic nanoparticles are superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) due to their biologically well-accepted constituents, their established size-selective synthesis methods, and their diminished agglomeration (no residual magnetic attraction in the absence of an external magnetic field). However, nanoparticles made of pure metal have a considerably higher magnetization level that is useful in applications where high loadings are needed. A few layers of carbon can efficiently shield such highly reactive metal nanoparticles and, equally important, enable facile covalent functionalization via diazonium chemistry or non-covalent functionalization through π-π interactions. We highlight carbon-coated cobalt (Co/C) and iron (Fe/C) nanoparticles in this Account and compare them to SPIONs stabilized with surfactants or silica shells. The graphene-like coating of these nanoparticles offers only low loadings with functional groups via direct surface modification, and the resulting nanomagnets are prone to agglomeration without effective steric stabilization. To overcome these restrictions and to tune the dispersibility of the magnetic supports in different solvents, we can introduce dendrimers and polymers on Co/C and Fe/C platforms by various synthetic strategies. While dendrimers have the advantage of being able to array all functional groups on the surface, polymers need fewer synthetic steps and higher molecular weight analogues are easily accessible. We present the application of these promising hybrid materials for the extraction of analytes or contaminates from complex aqueous solutions (e.g. waste water treatments or blood analytics), for metal-, organo-, and biocatalysis, and in organic synthesis. In addition, we describe advanced concepts like magnetic protecting groups, a multistep synthesis solely applying magnetic reagents and scavengers, and thermoresponsive self-separating magnetic catalysts. We also discuss the first examples of the use of magnetic scaffolds manipulated by external magnetic fields in flow reactors on the laboratory scale. These hold promise for future applications of magnetic hybrid materials in continuous flow or highly parallelized syntheses with rapid magnetic separation of the applied resins.

[Cu(dap)2Cl] As an Efficient Visible‐Light‐Driven Photoredox Catalyst in Carbon–Carbon Bond‐Forming Reactions

Copper sees the light of day: [Cu(dap)(2)Cl] proved to be an excellent photoredox catalyst for atom-transfer radical addition reactions, as well as for allylation reactions (see scheme), providing an attractive alternative to commonly used iridium- and ruthenium-based catalysts.

Trifluoromethylchlorosulfonylation of Alkenes: Evidence for an Inner-Sphere Mechanism by a Copper Phenanthroline Photoredox Catalyst†

A visible-light-mediated procedure for the unprecedented trifluoromethylchlorosulfonylation of unactivated alkenes is presented. It uses [Cu(dap)2]Cl as catalyst, and contrasts with [Ru(bpy)3]Cl2, [Ir(ppy)2(dtbbpy)]PF6, or eosin Y that exclusively give rise to trifluoromethylchlorination of the same alkenes. It is assumed that [Cu(dap)2]Cl plays a dual role, that is, acting both as an electron transfer reagent as well as coordinating the reactants in the bond forming processes.

α/β-Peptide foldamers: state of the art

Interplay between proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and/or lipids is involved in almost every process in life on earth. As a consequence, a wide range of diseases results from abnormal interactions of such biomolecules. The main motivation of foldamer science is the development of scaffolds that are capable of adopting defined structures, mimicking parts of biological protagonists in their function. Among the most fundamental interactions in living beings are those between proteins, the so called protein–protein interactions (PPIs). Therefore, peptidic foldamers bear the promise to be an important tool for the inhibition of PPIs, as they are structurally most similar to the original proteins. The great number of possible permutations given by the combination of proteinogenic α-amino acid residues along with β-amino acids opens the door for a larger pool of accessible structures with potential applications. Despite the increasing amount of new secondary structure motifs, only few examples for tertiary and quaternary structure design, as well as inhibition of PPIs, have been realized so far. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge and recent progress made in the field of α/β-peptide foldamers beginning from secondary structure design up to highly sophisticated biological applications, such as protein surface recognition and inhibition of HIV cell entry.

Copper in Photocatalysis

Light‐induced electron transfer (CuI to CuII), oxidative addition (CuI to CuIII), or the activation of copper alkene or alkyne complexes are possible key steps that offer unique possibilities for organic synthesis, including [2+2]‐cycloadditions, cross‐coupling reactions or atom transfer radical additions. This Minireview provides an overview on the photophysical properties of photocatalysts based on copper and on synthetic transformations mediated by them.

A copper(I) isonitrile complex as a heterogeneous catalyst for azide-alkyne cycloaddition in water.

A structurally well-defined copper(I) isonitrile complex is shown to be an efficient, heterogeneous catalyst for the Huisgen azide-alkyne 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition under mild conditions in water. Notably, this catalyst can also be utilized in a three-component reaction of halides, sodium azide and alkynes to form 1,4-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles in high yields. Furthermore, it can be readily recovered by precipitation and filtration and recycled for at least five runs without significant loss of activity.

Short α/β-Peptides as Catalysts for Intra-and Intermolecular Aldol Reactions

Short alpha/beta-peptides, containing conformationally restricted cis-beta-aminocyclopropylcarboxylic acid units as turn-inducing elements, have been found to be efficient catalysts for inter- and intramolecular aldol reactions. The tripeptide H-(L)-Pro-black triangle-(L)-Pro-OH was identified to perform especially well in homogeneous and heterogeneous aqueous solutions as well as in organic solvents.

The Sharpless Asymmetric Aminohydroxylation - Scope and Limitation

The asymmetric aminohydroxylation (AA) has emerged as a valuable tool in organic synthesis. Recent developments, such as ligandless variants, new nitrogen reagents and new substrates have considerably broadened the utility of the process. Nevertheless, the understanding of the AA, both in terms of mechanism as well as applicability to common synthetic tasks is still limited. This article summarizes the scope and limitation of the AA with special emphasis on recent advances.