Unraveling C-Selective Ring-Opening of Phosphiranes with Carboxylic Acids and Other Nucleophiles: A Mechanistically-Driven Approach.

Phosphiranes are weak Lewis bases reacting with only a limited number of electrophiles to produce the corresponding phosphiranium ions. These salts are recognized for their propensity to undergo reactions with oxygen pronucleophiles at the phosphorus site, leading to the formation of phosphine oxide adducts. Building on a thorough mechanistic understanding, we have developed an unprecedented approach that enables the selective reaction of carboxylic acids, and other nucleophiles, at the carbon site of phosphiranes. This method involves the photochemical generation of highly reactive carbenes, which react with 1-mesitylphosphirane to yield ylides. The latter undergoes a stepwise reaction with carboxylic acids, resulting in the production of the desired phosphines. In addition to DFT calculations, we have successfully isolated and fully characterized the key intermediates involved in the reaction.

Taming the Reactivity of Phosphiranium Salts: Site-Selective C-Centered Ring Opening for Direct Synthesis of Phosphinoethylamines.

Advances in the field of phosphorus chemistry are documented, by revealing the synthetic utility of previously underutilized quaternary phosphiranium salts (QPrS) as three-chain-atom electrophilic building blocks. Notably, control of their challenging C-centered electrophilicity is disclosed with an expedient synthesis of tertiary ß-anilino phosphines as a proof-of-concept.

Novel Hybrid Prins/Aza-Prins Oxocarbenium/N-Acyliminium Cascade: Expedient Access to Complex Indolizidines.

Heavy silyl enol ethers (mostly TIPS and TBS) combine with cyclic N-alkenyl N-acyliminium salts generated in situ from their N,O-acetal precursors, to furnish highly functionalized indolizidines through an unprecedented double Mukaiyama-Mannich-Prins cascade transformation. This novel cascade annulation process demonstrates a promising scope, and takes place mostly catalytically with interesting stereocontrol. Furthermore, an appealing facet of this chemistry is emphasized with a bicatalytic approach by which the Mannich-Prins cascade follows a Ru-catalyzed N-allylamide to N-(E)-propenyl isomerization of the aminal counterpart in a one-pot operation.

Catalytic Alkynylation of Cyclic Acetals and Ketals Enabled by Synergistic Gold(I)/Trimethylsilyl Catalysis.

A completely regioselective and challenging gold(I)-catalyzed ring-opening of cyclic 1,3-dioxolanes and dioxanes by trimethylsilyl alkynes to set diol-derived propargyl trimethylsilyl bis-ethers is reported. This unprecedented and not trivial transformation does not operate with the catalytic methodologies recently reported for catalytic alkynylation of acyclic acetals/ketals, and is uniquely enabled by the application of a recently introduced synergistic gold(I)-silicon catalysis concept capable of producing simultaneously catalytic amounts of two key players, a silicon-based Lewis superacid and a nucleophilic gold acetylide.

Enolizable Carbonyls and N,O-Acetals: A Rational Approach for Room-Temperature Lewis Superacid-Catalyzed Direct α-Amidoalkylation of Ketones and Aldehydes.

An efficient catalytic room-temperature direct α-amidoalkylation of carbonyl donors, that is, ketones and aldehydes with unbiased N,O-acetals, is described. Sn(NTf2 )4 is an optimal catalyst to promote this challenging transformation at low loading and the reaction shows promising scope. A comprehensive and rational evaluation of this reaction has led to the establishment of an empirical scale of nucleophilic reactivity for a broad set of ketones that should be helpful in the synthetic design and development of carbonyl α-functionalization methods.

Intra- and intermolecular alkylation of N,O-acetals and π-activated alcohols catalyzed by in situ generated acid.

Intramolecular and intermolecular alkylations of carbocation precursors of limited ionization ability, principally N,O-acetals, without the use of an exogenous reagent have been developed. The reactions are carried out in 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane (TCE) and take advantage of the ability of this solvent to continuously release small amounts of HCl by thermolytic elimination. A study of the reaction led to several improved protocols such as (1) preheated TCE, (2) microwave-assisted reactions, and (3) flow or sealed-tube conditions, which allow significant reaction rate enhancements and made possible some challenging reactions such as the α-amidoalkylation of ketones. Studies using flow chemistry confirmed not only that very low concentrations of HCl generated from the solvent were responsible for the reactivity but also that TCE had additional beneficial properties in comparison to other chlorinated solvents such as dichloroethane. The method can easily be extended to the alkylation using proelectrophiles such as π-activated alcohols, which are normally unreactive toward HCl catalysis. This work represents the first successful use of HCl, the simplest strong Brønsted acid, as an efficient alkylation catalyst.

N-Benzyloxyacrylamides as Bisnucleophiles in an Organocatalyzed Domino aza-Michael/Morita-Baylis-Hillman Sequence.

We herein describe a stereoselective organocatalyzed aza-Michael/Morita-Baylis-Hillman domino reaction between readily accessible acrylamides and α,ß-unsaturated carbonyls. This novel, PPh3-promoted atom economic one-pot process features medium to good yields and good stereoselectivity leading to variously substituted piperidin-2-ones bearing an exocyclic olefinic bond, which was shown to be an excellent anchor for further chemical diversification.

Recent advances in cooperative ion pairing in asymmetric organocatalysis.

Over the last decade, with the surge in the development of organocatalysis, many processes involving chiral ion pairs have emerged as powerful tools in the design of new efficient organocatalysts. This tutorial review focuses on the recent evolutions of these organocatalytic systems in which both anionic and cationic parts are working in a cooperative fashion in order to develop unique catalytic processes which outperform the existing approaches. In this respect, chiral ion pairs opened new avenues in the design of bifunctional organocatalysts by means of combinatorial approaches.

Dual hard/soft gold catalysis: intermolecular Friedel-Crafts-type α-amidoalkylation/alkyne hydroarylation sequences by N-acyliminium ion chemistry.

Gold catalysts have been applied in cascade-type reactions for the synthesis of different nitrogen-based compounds. The reactions likely proceed by a new gold-catalyzed cascade intermolecular α-amidoalkylation/intramolecular carbocyclization cascade process by unifying both the σ- and π-Lewis acid properties of the gold salts. In the first part of this report we show that the σ-Lewis acidity of gold(I) and gold(III) could be exploited to efficiently catalyze the nucleophilic substitution of various alkoxy- and acetoxylactams. The reaction was found to be applicable to a wide range of cyclic N-acyliminium ion precursors and various nucleophiles, including allyltrimethylsilane, silyl enol ethers, arenes, and active methylene derivatives. As a logical progression of this study, a combined hard/soft binary catalytic gold system was then used to implement an unprecedented tandem intermolecular Friedel-Crafts amidoalkylation/intramolecular hydroarylation sequence allowing an expedient access to new, complex, fused polyheterocyclic structures from trivial materials.

Organocatalyzed enantioselective protonation of silyl enol ethers: scope, limitations, and application to the preparation of enantioenriched homoisoflavones.

In the present work, enantioselective protonation of silyl enol ethers is reported by means of a variety of chiral nitrogen bases as catalysts, mainly derived from cinchona alkaloids, in the presence of various protic nucleophiles as proton source. A detailed study of the most relevant reaction parameters is disclosed allowing high enantioselectivities of up to 92% ee with excellent yields to be achieved under mild and eco-friendly conditions. The synthetic utility of this organocatalytic protonation was demonstrated during the preparation of two homoisoflavones 4a and 4b, isolated from Chlorophytum Inornatum and Scilla Nervosa, which were obtained with 81% and 78% ee, respectively.

Metal triflimidates: better than metal triflates as catalysts in organic synthesis--the effect of a highly delocalized counteranion.

The continuously increasing need for novel and selective methods in organic synthesis to aid drug discovery and to address environmental concerns is a constant source of stimulation to develop novel and more efficient reaction systems. This has often resulted in a focus on transition metals, ligands, and additives, with much less attention paid to the counterion(s) of the metal cation. Recently, metal salts with one or more triflimidate counterion(s) have appeared as a unique class of catalysts that display outstanding σ- and π-Lewis acid character. The highly delocalized nature of the triflimidate counterion, combined with its high steric hindrance results in virtually no nucleophilic behavior and an extremely high positive charge density on the metal cation, thus enhancing its Lewis acid character. Consequently, these metal triflimidates often outperform their metal halide or triflate analogues. This Review describes general methods for the preparation of metal triflimidate salts and their use as catalysts.

Calix[6]tris(thio)ureas: heteroditopic receptors for the cooperative binding of organic ion pairs.

The straightforward syntheses of C3v symmetrical calix[6]trisureas and -thiourea have been achieved. NMR studies have shown that these flexible compounds possess a major cone conformation. While these neutral hosts can strongly bind anions such as AcO(-) or HSO4(-) through induced fit processes, they can also behave as unique heteroditopic receptors for organic ion pairs with a remarkable positive cooperativity in the complexation process, the anion acting as an allosteric effector.

Toward improving the chemistry of N-acyliminium ions: nucleophilic substitution reactions of pyrrolidinone derivatives with trialkylsilyl nucleophiles catalyzed by triisopropylsilyltrifluoromethane sulfonate (TIPSOTf).

[reaction: see text] Nucleophilic substitution reactions of racemic and chiral 5-acetoxy-, 5-ethoxy-, and 5-methoxypyrrolidin-2-ones by silicon-based nucleophiles were efficiently catalyzed by TIPSOTf. This process was found to be general and accommodates a broad range of substrate-nucleophile combinations.

N-trialkylsilyl bistrifluoromethanesulfonimides (R3SiNTf2) are powerful catalysts for the highly efficient alpha-amido alkylation reactions of silicon-based nucleophiles.

[reaction: see text] In situ formed N-trialkylsilyl bistrifluoromethanesulfonimides (R3SiNTf2) species have been shown to efficiently catalyze the nucleophilic substitution reactions of chiral 5-oxypyrrolidin-2-ones by silicon-based nucleophiles. The reaction rates were significantly accelerated in comparison to the cases where the usual triflate catalysts are used. Adducts were obtained in high yields and usual stereoselectivities within short reaction times, and the process was compatible with a semipreparative scale.

Sequential Friedel-Crafts-Type α-Amidoalkylation/Intramolecular Hydroarylation: Distinct Advantage of Combined Tf2NH/Cationic LAu(I) as a Consecutive or Binary Bicatalytic System.

The combined use of Tf2NH and L(Au)(+)X(-) as a dual or binary catalytic system clearly improves the efficiency and enlarges the scope of the tandem intermolecular Friedel-Crafts α-amidoalkylation/intramolecular hydroarylation sequence, compared to an "all gold" multicatalysis approach.