A Direct, Regioselective and Atom-Economical Synthesis of 3-Aroyl-N-hydroxy-5-nitroindoles by Cycloaddition of 4-Nitronitrosobenzene with Alkynones.

We introduced a regioselective and atom-economical procedure for the synthesis of 3-substituted indoles by annulation of nitrosoarenes with ethynyl ketones. The reactions were carried out achieving indoles without any catalyst and with excellent regioselectivity. No traces of 2-aroylindole products were detected. Working with 4-nitronitrosobenzene as starting material, the 3-aroyl-N-hydroxy-5-nitroindole products precipitated from the reaction mixtures and were isolated by filtration without any further purification technique. Differently from the corresponding N-hydroxy-3-aryl indoles that, spontaneously in solution, give dehydrodimerization products, the N-hydroxy-3-aroyl indoles are stable and no dimerization compounds were observed.

Photocatalytic formation of a carbamate through ethanol-assisted carbonylation of p-nitrotoluene.

The nitroarene p-nitrotoluene is converted with a selectivity higher than 85% to the corresponding carbamate at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, using photoexcited particles of TiO2 as catalyst and EtOH as carbonylating species.

The Suzuki homocoupling reaction under high-intensity ultrasound.

The Pd-catalysed Suzuki homocoupling of boronic acids was successfully carried out in water under high-intensity ultrasound (HIU). Heterogeneous catalysis with Pd/C, facilitating work up and purification, could be used without adding phosphine ligands. Reaction rates and yields were strongly influenced by the oxidant employed; excellent results were obtained using either molecular oxygen or 3-bromo-4-hydroxycoumarin. 3-Arylation of the latter with the Suzuki procedure had failed, exclusively affording the homocoupling products, symmetric biaryls. Besides offering a number of operational advantages, the use of HIU broadens the field of application for the Suzuki reaction.

Ultrasound-enhanced one-pot synthesis of 3-(Het)arylmethyl-4-hydroxycoumarins in water.

3-(Aryl)methyl-4-hydroxycoumarins were produced in good to excellent yields by reaction between 4-hydroxycoumarin and (hetero)aromatic aldehydes in the presence of Hantzsch 1,4-dihydropyridine (HEH) which works as an hydride donor (i.e., in a sequential Knoevenagel-reductive Michael addition). The sonochemical-assisted procedure (method B) provides an improved and accelerated conversion when compared to conventional silent reactions (method A). Experiments carried out according to method B showed that the reaction could be more efficiently run in the absence of organic solvents, at 30-40°C in open vessel, without the need of an excess HEH and with simplified work-up and separation procedures.

Amination of benzylic C-H bonds by arylazides catalyzed by CoII-porphyrin complexes: a synthetic and mechanistic study.

Co(II)-porphyrin complexes catalyze the reaction of aromatic azides (ArN(3)) with hydrocarbons that contain a benzylic group (ArR(1)R(2)CH) to give the corresponding amines (ArR(1)R(2)C-NHAr). When at least one of the R substituents is hydrogen, the catalytic reaction proceeds further to give the imine ArRC=NAr in good yields. The reaction mechanism has been investigated. The reaction proceeds through a reversible coordination of the arylazide to the Co(II)-porphyrin complex. This unstable adduct can either react with the hydrocarbon in the rate-determining step or decompose by a unimolecular mechanism to afford a putative "nitrene" complex, which reacts with more azide, but not with the hydrocarbon, to afford the byproduct diaryldiazene. The kinetics of the catalytic reaction have been investigated for a range of azides and substituted toluenes. Arylazides with electron-withdrawing substituents react at a faster rate and a good correlation is found between the log(k) and the Taft parameters. On the other hand, an excellent correlation between the logarithm of the rate for substituted toluenes relative to that of toluene and a radical parameter (sigma*JJ) alone was found, with no significant contribution by polar parameters. An explanation has been proposed for this anomalous effect and for the very high isotopic effect (k(H)/k(D)=14) found.