Paul Hellier

Rapid Generation and Safe Use of Carbenes Enabled by a Novel Flow Protocol with In‐line IR spectroscopy

A powerful new continuous process for the formation and use of donor/acceptor-substituted carbenes is described. The safety profile of diazo group transfer on methyl phenylacetate was determined including kinetic studies in batch and in flow using in-line IR analysis. Batch work-up and liquid chromatography were circumvented by developing an optimized liquid/liquid flow separation method providing aryl diazoacetates in high purity. Fast screening of reaction conditions in flow with in-line IR analysis allowed rapid reaction optimization. Finally, a multistep process of diazo group transfer, extraction, separation and subsequent diazo decomposition combined with multiple X-H insertion reactions was established.

Ethyl Lithiodiazoacetate: Extremely Unstable Intermediate Handled Efficiently in Flow.

Ethyl diazoacetate (EDA) is one of the most prominent diazo reagents. It is frequently used in metal-carbene-type reactions. However, EDA can also be used as a nucleophile under base catalysis. Whilst the addition of EDA to aldehydes can be performed using organic bases, the addition of EDA to other carbonyl electrophiles requires the use of organometallics such as lithium diisopropylamide (LDA). The generated ethyl lithiodiazoacetate is highly reactive and decomposes rapidly, even at low temperatures. Herein, we report a continuous flow protocol that overcomes the problems associated with the instantaneous decomposition of ethyl lithiodiazoacetate. The addition of ethyl lithiodiazoacetate to ketones provides direct access to tertiary diazoalcohols in good yields.