One pot synthesis of diarylfurans from aryl esters and PhI(OAc)2 via palladium-associated iodonium ylides.

The example of palladium-catalyzed intermolecular cyclization for the synthesis of various diarylfurans in which one of the aromatic rings originates from the phenolic part of the starting ester and the other one from PhI(OAc)2 has been reported. The reaction is carried out through two steps: the rearrangement of palladium-associated iodonium ylides to form o-iodo diaryl ether and then palladium catalyzed intramolecular direct arylation. This reaction can tolerate a variety of functional groups and is alternative or complementary to the previous methods for the synthesis of diarylfurans.

Aminolysis of aryl ester using tertiary amine as amino donor via C-O and C-N bond activations.

An aminolysis reaction between various aryl esters and inert tertiary amines by C-O and C-N bond activations has been developed for the selective synthesis of a broad scope of tertiary amides under neutral and mild conditions. The mechanism may undergo the two key steps of oxidative addition of acyl C-O bond in parent ester and C-N bond cleavage of tertiary amine via an iminium-type intermediate.

Energy-efficient green catalysis: supported gold nanoparticle-catalyzed aminolysis of esters with inert tertiary amines by C-O and C-N bond activations.

Catalyzed by supported gold nanoparticles, an aminolysis reaction between various aryl esters and inert tertiary amines by C-O and C-N bond activations has been developed for the selective synthesis of tertiary amides. Comparison studies indicated that the gold nanoparticles could perform energy-efficient green catalysis at room temperature, whereas Pd(OAc)2 could not.

Transesterification of (hetero)aryl esters with phenols by an Earth-abundant metal catalyst.

Readily available and inexpensive Earth-abundant alkali metal species are used as efficient catalysts for the transesterification of aryl or heteroaryl esters with phenols which is a challenging and underdeveloped transformation. The simple conditions and the use of heterogeneous alkali metal catalyst make this protocol very environmentally friendly and practical. This reaction fills in the missing part in transesterification reaction of phenols and provides an efficient approach to aryl esters, which are widely used in the synthetic and pharmaceutical industry.

Ordered mesoporous carbon catalyst for dehydrogenation of propane to propylene.

Metal-free ordered mesoporous carbons were demonstrated to be robust catalysts for direct dehydrogenation of propane to propylene, in the absence of any auxiliary steam, exhibiting high activity and selectivity, as well as long catalytic stability, in comparison with nanostructured carbons.