Conversion of amides to esters by the nickel-catalysed activation of amide C-N bonds.

Amides are common functional groups that have been studied for more than a century. They are the key building blocks of proteins and are present in a broad range of other natural and synthetic compounds. Amides are known to be poor electrophiles, which is typically attributed to the resonance stability of the amide bond. Although amides can readily be cleaved by enzymes such as proteases, it is difficult to selectively break the carbon-nitrogen bond of an amide using synthetic chemistry. Here we demonstrate that amide carbon-nitrogen bonds can be activated and cleaved using nickel catalysts. We use this methodology to convert amides to esters, which is a challenging and underdeveloped transformation. The reaction methodology proceeds under exceptionally mild reaction conditions, and avoids the use of a large excess of an alcohol nucleophile. Density functional theory calculations provide insight into the thermodynamics and catalytic cycle of the amide-to-ester transformation. Our results provide a way to harness amide functional groups as synthetic building blocks and are expected to lead to the further use of amides in the construction of carbon-heteroatom or carbon-carbon bonds using non-precious-metal catalysis.

Quantification of the Electrophilicity of Benzyne and Related Intermediates.

The determination of reactivity parameters for short-lived intermediates provides an indispensable tool for synthetic design. Despite that electrophilicity parameters have now been established for more than 250 reactive species, the corresponding parameters for benzyne and related intermediates have not been uncovered. We report a study that has allowed for the quantification of benzyne's electrophilicity parameter. Our approach relies on the strategic use of the diffusion-clock method and also provides electrophilicity parameters E for other substituted arynes.

Nickel-Catalyzed Activation of Acyl C-O Bonds of Methyl Esters.

We report the first catalytic method for activating the acyl C-O bonds of methyl esters through an oxidative-addition process. The oxidative-addition adducts, formed using nickel catalysis, undergo in situ trapping to provide anilide products. DFT calculations are used to support the proposed reaction mechanism, to understand why decarbonylation does not occur competitively, and to elucidate the beneficial role of the substrate structure and the Al(OtBu)3 additive on the kinetics and thermodynamics of the reaction.

Fifteen Nanometer Resolved Patterns in Selective Area Atomic Layer Deposition-Defectivity Reduction by Monolayer Design.

Selective area atomic layer deposition (SA-ALD) offers the potential to replace a lithography step and provide a significant advantage to mitigate pattern errors and relax design rules in semiconductor fabrication. One class of materials that shows promise to enable this selective deposition process are self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). In an effort to more completely understand the ability of these materials to function as barriers for ALD processes and their failure mechanism, a series of SAM derivatives were synthesized and their structure-property relationship explored. These materials incorporate different side group functionalities and were evaluated in the deposition of a sacrificial etch mask. Monolayers with weak supramolecular interactions between components (for example, van der Waals) were found to direct a selective deposition, though they exhibit significant defectivity at and below 100 nm feature sizes. The incorporation of stronger noncovalent supramolecular interacting groups in the monolayer design, such as hydrogen bonding units or pi-pi interactions, did not produce an added benefit over the weaker interacting components. Incorporation of reactive moieties in the monolayer component that enabled the polymerization of an SAM surface, however, provided a more effective barrier, greatly reducing the number and types of defects observed in the selectively deposited ALD film. These reactive monolayers enabled the selective deposition of a film with critical dimensions as low as 15 nm. It was also found that the selectively deposited film functioned as an effective barrier for isotropic etch chemistries, allowing the selective removal of a metal without affecting the surrounding surface. This work enables selective area ALD as a technology through (1) the development of a material that dramatically reduces defectivity and (2) the demonstrated use of the selectively deposited film as an etch mask and its subsequent removal under mild conditions.

Nickel-Catalyzed Amination of Aryl Chlorides and Sulfamates in 2-Methyl-THF.

The nickel-catalyzed amination of aryl O-sulfamates and chlorides using the green solvent 2-methyl-THF is reported. This methodology employs the commercially available and air-stable precatalyst NiCl2(DME), is broad in scope, and provides access to aryl amines in synthetically useful yields. The utility of this methodology is underscored by examples of gram-scale couplings conducted with catalyst loadings as low as 1 mol % nickel. Moreover, the nickel-catalyzed amination described is tolerant of heterocycles and should prove useful in the synthesis of pharmaceutical candidates and other heteroatom-containing compounds.

Cine substitution of arenes using the aryl carbamate as a removable directing group.

An efficient and controlled means to achieve a rare cine substitution of arenes is reported. The methodology relies on the strategic use of aryl O-carbamates as readily removable directing groups for arene functionalization. The removal of aryl carbamates is achieved by employing an air-stable Ni(II) precatalyst, along with an inexpensive reducing agent, to give synthetically useful yields across a range of substrates. The net cine substitution process offers a new strategy for analogue synthesis, which complements the well-established logic for achieving arene functionalization by ipso substitution.

Nickel-catalyzed amination of aryl carbamates and sequential site-selective cross-couplings.

We report the amination of aryl carbamates using nickel-catalysis. The methodology is broad in scope with respect to both coupling partners and delivers aminated products in synthetically useful yields. Computational studies provide the full catalytic cycle of this transformation, and suggest that reductive elimination is the rate-determining step. Given that carbamates are easy to prepare, robust, inert to Pd-catalysis, and useful for arene functionalization, these substrates are particularly attractive partners for use in synthesis. The sequential use of carbamate functionalization/site-selective cross-coupling processes highlights the utility of this methodology.