Expanding the Boundaries of Water-Tolerant Frustrated Lewis Pair Hydrogenation: Enhanced Back Strain in the Lewis Acid Enables the Reductive Amination of Carbonyls.

The development of a boron/nitrogen-centered frustrated Lewis pair (FLP) with remarkably high water tolerance is presented. As systematic steric tuning of the boron-based Lewis acid (LA) component revealed, the enhanced back-strain makes water binding increasingly reversible in the presence of relatively strong base. This advance allows the limits of FLP's hydrogenation to be expanded, as demonstrated by the FLP reductive amination of carbonyls. This metal-free catalytic variant displays a notably broad chemoselectivity and generality.

Nuclear spin hyperpolarization with ansa-aminoboranes: a metal-free perspective for parahydrogen-induced polarization.

The parahydrogen-induced polarization (PHIP) phenomenon, observed when parahydrogen is used in H2 addition processes, provides a means for substantial NMR signal enhancements and mechanistic studies of chemical reactions. Commonly, noble metal complexes are used for parahydrogen activation, whereas metal-free activation is rare. Herein, we report a series of unimolecular metal-free frustrated Lewis pairs based on an ansa-aminoborane (AAB) moiety in the context of PHIP. These molecules, which have a "molecular tweezers" structure, differ in their substituents at the boryl site (-H, -Ph, -o-iPr-Ph, and -Mes). PHIP effects were observed for all the AABs after exposing their solutions to parahydrogen in a wide temperature range, and experimental measurements of their kinetic and thermodynamic parameters were performed. A theoretical analysis of their nuclear spin polarization effects is presented, and the roles of chemical exchange, chemical equilibrium and spin dynamics are discussed in terms of the key dimensionless parameters. The analysis allowed us to formulate the prerequisites for achieving strong polarization effects with AAB molecules, which can be applied for further design of efficient metal-free tweezers-like molecules for PHIP. Mechanistic (chemical and physical) aspects of the observed effects are discussed in detail. In addition, we performed quantum chemical calculations, which confirmed that the J-coupling between the parahydrogen-originated protons in AAB-H2 molecules is mediated through dihydrogen bonding.

Metal-Free sp(2)-C-H Borylation as a Common Reactivity Pattern of Frustrated 2-Aminophenylboranes.

C-H borylation is a powerful and atom-efficient method for converting affordable and abundant chemicals into versatile organic reagents used in the production of fine chemicals and functional materials. Herein we report a facile C-H borylation of aromatic and olefinic C-H bonds with 2-aminophenylboranes. Computational and experimental studies reveal that the metal-free C-H insertion proceeds via a frustrated Lewis pair mechanism involving heterolytic splitting of the C-H bond by cooperative action of the amine and boryl groups. The adapted geometry of the reactive B and N centers results in an unprecedentently low kinetic barrier for both insertion into the sp(2)-C-H bond and intramolecular protonation of the sp(2)-C-B bond in 2-ammoniophenyl(aryl)- or -(alkenyl)borates. This common reactivity pattern serves as a platform for various catalytic reactions such as C-H borylation and hydrogenation of alkynes. In particular, we demonstrate that simple 2-aminopyridinium salts efficiently catalyze the C-H borylation of hetarenes with catecholborane. This reaction is presumably mediated by a borenium species isoelectronic to 2-aminophenylboranes.

Chiral molecular tweezers: synthesis and reactivity in asymmetric hydrogenation.

We report the synthesis and reactivity of a chiral aminoborane displaying both rapid and reversible H2 activation. The catalyst shows exceptional reactivity in asymmetric hydrogenation of enamines and unhindered imines with stereoselectivities of up to 99% ee. DFT analysis of the reaction mechanism pointed to the importance of both repulsive steric and stabilizing intermolecular non-covalent forces in the stereodetermining hydride transfer step of the catalytic cycle.

Intramolecular frustrated Lewis pair with the smallest boryl site: reversible H2 addition and kinetic analysis.

Ansa-aminoborane 1 (ortho-TMP-C6H4-BH2; TMP = 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperid-1-yl), a frustrated Lewis pair with the smallest possible Lewis acidic boryl site (-BH2), is prepared. Although it is present in quenched forms in solution, and BH2 represents an acidic site with reduced hydride affinity, 1 reacts with H2 under mild conditions producing ansa-ammonium trihydroborate 2. The thermodynamic and kinetic features as well as the mechanism of this reaction are studied by variable-temperature NMR spectroscopy, spin-saturation transfer experiments, and DFT calculations, which provide comprehensive insight into the nature of 1.

Mukaiyama-Michael reactions with trans-2,5-diarylpyrrolidine catalysts: enantioselectivity arises from attractive noncovalent interactions, not from steric hindrance.

The scope of the enantioselective Mukaiyama-Michael reactions catalyzed by trans-2,5-diphenylpyrrolidine has been expanded to include both α- and ß-substituted enals. However, the rationalization of the observed enantioselectivity is far from obvious since the catalyst is not very sterically hindered. DFT calculations were carried out to rationalize the observed stereoselectivities. Transition states of the C-C bond formation between iminium intermediates and silyloxyfurans were located and their relative energies were used to estimate the stereoselectivity data. We find excellent agreement between the predicted and observed stereoselectivities. The analysis of intermolecular forces reveals that the enantioselectivity is mostly due to stabilizing noncovalent interactions between the reacting partners, not due to steric hindrance. The role of attractive noncovalent interactions in enantioselective catalysis may be underappreciated.

On the mechanism of bifunctional squaramide-catalyzed organocatalytic Michael addition: a protonated catalyst as an oxyanion hole.

A joint experimental-theoretical study of a bifunctional squaramide-amine-catalyzed Michael addition reaction between 1,3-dioxo nucleophiles and nitrostyrene has been undertaken to gain insight into the nature of bifunctional organocatalytic activation. For this highly stereoselective reaction, three previously proposed mechanistic scenarios for the critical CC bond-formation step were examined. Accordingly, the formation of the major stereoisomeric products is most plausible by one of the bifunctional pathways that involve electrophile activation by the protonated amine group of the catalyst. However, some of the minor product isomers are also accessible through alternative reaction routes. Structural analysis of transition states points to the structural invariance of certain fragments of the transition state, such as the protonated catalyst and the anionic fragment of approaching reactants. Our topological analysis provides deeper insight and a more general understanding of bifunctional noncovalent organocatalysis.