Mechanism of Amide Bond Formation from Carboxylic Acids and Amines Promoted by 9-Silafluorenyl Dichloride Derivatives.

The couplings of carboxylic acids and amines promoted by dichlorosilane derivatives provide a promising tool for amide synthesis and peptide coupling, in which an unprecedented mechanism was proposed for the amide bond formation process. To investigate this mechanistic proposal and enrich the understanding of this novel reaction, a theoretical study was conducted herein. The formation and interconversion of silylamine and silyl ester intermediates were calculated to be kinetically feasible under the experiment conditions. However, the subsequent amidation via direct elimination on the AcO-Si(L)(L')-NHMe intermediate was found to involve a high energy barrier due to the formation of an unstable silanone. By contrast, the in situ generated salts can promote the amidation process by generating a silanol as the temporary product. Similarly, the anhydride formation mechanism can proceed via direct elimination or salt-assisted elimination on the AcO-Si(L)(L')-OAc intermediate but is less favorable. Finally, we found that the intermolecular nucleophilic addition on the AcO-Si(L)(L')-Cl intermediate is the most favorable mechanism among all the candidates considered. In this mechanism, carboxylic acids or bases can act as self-catalysts to promote the amide bond formation via hydrogen bonding, and the formation of the unstable silanone or anhydride is avoided.

Mechanistic Insight into the Rh(III)-Catalyzed C-H Activation of 2-Acetyl-1-Arythydrazines in Water.

A mechanistic study of the Cp*RhIII-catalyzed C-H functionalization of 2-acetyl-1-arythydrazines with diazo compounds in water was carried out by using density functional theory calculations. The results reveal that the acetyl-bonded N-H deprotonation is prior to the phenyl C-H activation. The mechanisms from protonation by acetic acid disagree with the proposal by the Wang group. Different from the Rh(III)-catalyzed C-H activation reported by experimental literature, the rate-determining step of the whole catalytic cycle with an overall barrier of 31.7 kcal mol-1 (IV → TS12-P') is the protonation process of hydroxy O rather than the C-H bond cleavage step. The present theoretical study rationalizes the experimental observation at the molecular level.

A Ligand-Dissociation-Involved Mechanism in Amide Formation of Monofluoroacylboronates with Hydroxylamines.

Acylborons, as a growing class of boron reagents, were successfully applied to amide ligation and showed potential in chemoselective bioconjugation reactions in recent years. In this manuscript, a density functional theory (DFT) study was performed to investigate the mechanism of the amide formation between monofluoroacylboronates and hydroxylamines. An updated pathway was clarified herein, including water-assisted hemiaminal formation, pyridine ligand dissociation, elimination via a six-membered-ring transition state, and water-assisted tautomerization. The proposed mechanism was further examined by applying it to investigate the activation barriers of other monofluoroacylboronates, and the related calculations well reproduced the experimentally reported relative reactivities. On the basis of these results, we found that the ortho substitution of the pyridine ligand destabilizes the acylboron substrates and the hemiaminal intermediates by steric effects and thus lowers the energy demand of the ligand dissociation and elimination steps. By contrast, the para substitution of the pyridine ligand with an electron-donating group enhances the coordination of the ligand by electronic effects, which is a disadvantage to the ligand dissociation and elimination steps. The ligand bearing a rigid linkage blocks the rotation of the pyridine ligand and makes ligand dissociation difficult.