Dehydrative Cross-Coupling of Allylic Alcohols with Alkynes.

A highly efficient Pd/Ca catalytic system for the directly dehydrative cross-coupling of allylic alcohols with terminal alkynes was developed. This calcium salt cocatalyst facilitates the oxidative addition of the palladium catalyst (1 mol %) to the C-OH bond. Then, the in situ-generated hydroxide ion deprotonates the terminal alkynes to promote the formation of the allylalkynylpalladium intermediate, liberating water as the only byproduct. This proposed mechanism is also supported by density functional theory calculations. An anticancer agent was prepared from inexpensive starting materials on a 10 g scale.

Barium-catalyzed C-OH/P-H dehydrative cross-coupling for C-P bond construction.

A barium-catalyzed C-OH/P-H dehydrative cross-coupling protocol for the construction of C-P bonds was developed. This reaction was performed in an environmentally benign manner with water as the only by-product. A variety of allylic phosphorus compounds can be isolated in good to excellent yields.

Direct Substitution of Secondary and Tertiary Alcohols To Generate Sulfones under Catalyst- and Additive-Free Conditions.

An environmentally benign protocol that affords propargylic sulfones containing highly congested carbon centers from easily accessible alcohols and sulfinic acids with water as the only byproduct is reported. The reaction proceeded via an in situ dehydrative cross-coupling process by taking advantage of the synergetic actions of multiple hydrogen bonds rather than relying on an external catalyst and/or additives to achieve high product distribution.

Bronsted Acid/Organic Photoredox Cooperative Catalysis: Easy Access to Tri- and Tetrasubstituted Alkenylphosphorus Compounds from Alcohols and P-H Species.

A Bronsted acid/organic photoredox cooperative catalytic system toward P-C bond formation from alcohols and P-H species is developed. With the assistance of visible light and TBHP, the reactions proceeded smoothly in an environmentally benign manner to give various alkenylphosphorus compounds in high efficiency.

Water-promoted C-S bond formation reactions.

Allylic sulfones, owning to their widespread distributions in biologically active molecules, received increasing attention in the past few years. However, the synthetic method under mild conditions is still a challenging task. In this paper, we report a sulfinic acids ligation with allylic alcohols via metal-free dehydrative cross-coupling. Both aliphatic and aromatic sulfinic acids react with various allylic alcohols to deliver the desired allylic sulfones in high yields with excellent selectivity. This carbon-sulfur bond formation reaction is highly efficient and practical since it works under metal-free, neutral, aqueous media and at room temperature in which the products even can be obtained by simple filtration without the need for organic extraction or column chromatography. Water is found to be essential for the success of this carbon-sulfur bond formation reaction. DFT calculations imply that water acts as promoter in this transformation via intermolecular hydrogen bonds.