Soumitra Agasti

ipso-Nitration of arylboronic acids with bismuth nitrate and perdisulfate.

An efficient and one pot synthetic method of ipso-nitration of arylboronic acids has been developed. The high efficiency, general applicability, and broader substrate scope including heterocycles and functional groups make this method advantageous. Due to its simplicity, we expect to find application of this method in synthesis.

Palladium‐Catalyzed Directed para C−H Functionalization of Phenols

Various practical methods for the selective C-H functionalization of the ortho and recently also of the meta position of an arene have already been developed. Following our recent development of the directing-group-assisted para C-H functionalization of toluene derivatives, we herein report the first remote para C-H functionalization of phenol derivatives by using a recyclable silicon-containing biphenyl-based template. The effectiveness of this strategy was illustrated with different synthetic elaborations and by the synthesis of various phenol-based natural products.

Palladium‐Catalyzed Annulation of Diarylamines with Olefins through CH Activation: Direct Access to N‐Arylindoles

A palladium-catalyzed dehydrogenative coupling between diarylamines and olefins has been discovered for the synthesis of substituted indoles. This intermolecular annulation approach incorporates readily available olefins for the first time and obviates the need of any additional directing group. An ortho palladation, olefin coordination, and β-migratory insertion sequence has been proposed for the generation of olefinated intermediate, which is found to produce the expected indole moiety.

Nickel‐Catalyzed Insertion of Alkynes and Electron‐Deficient Olefins into Unactivated sp3 CH Bonds

Insertion of unsaturated systems such as alkynes and olefins into unactivated sp(3) C-H bonds remains an unexplored problem. We herein address this issue by successfully incorporating a wide variety of functionalized alkynes and electron-deficient olefins into the unactivated sp(3) C-H bond of pivalic acid derivatives with excellent syn- and linear- selectivity. A strongly chelating 8-aminoquinoline directing group proved beneficial for these insertion reactions, while an air-stable and inexpensive Ni(II) salt has been employed as the active catalyst.

Nickel-catalyzed hydrogenolysis of unactivated carbon–cyano bonds

Selective hydrogenolysis of C-CN bonds can allow chemists to take advantage of ortho-directing ability, α-C-H acidity and electron withdrawing ability of the cyano group for synthetic manipulations. We have discovered hydrogenolysis of aryl and aliphatic cyanides under just 1 bar of hydrogen by using a nickel catalyst. This protocol was applied in the aryl cyanide directed functionalization reaction and α-substitution of benzyl cyanides.

Traceless directing group mediated branched selective alkenylation of unbiased arenes

Owing to the synthetic importance of branched olefinated products, we report palladium catalyzed formation of branched olefins facilitated by a C-H activation based protocol. This involves selective insertion of olefins and subsequent decarboxylation using a completely unbiased benzene ring as the starting precursor. The significance of the protocol has been further highlighted by exhibition of functionality tolerance along with a late-stage modification of the branched olefinated products leading to the formation of other functionalized molecules.

Palladium‐Catalyzed Synthesis of 2,3‐Disubstituted Benzofurans: An Approach Towards the Synthesis of Deuterium Labeled Compounds

Palladium-catalyzed oxidative annulations between phenols and alkenylcarboxylic acids produced a library of benzofuran compounds. Depending on the nature of the substitution of the phenol precursor, either 2,3-dialkylbenzofurans or 2-alkyl-3-methylene-2,3-dihydrobenzofurans can be synthesized with excellent regioselectivity. Reactions between conjugated 5-phenylpenta-2,4-dienoic acids and phenol gave 3-alkylidenedihydrobenzofuran alkaloid motifs while biologically active 7-arylbenzofuran derivatives were prepared by starting from 2-phenylphenols. More interestingly, selective incorporation of deuterium from D2O has been discovered, which offers an attractive one-step method to access deuterated compounds.