RESUMO
Alkyl aryl ethers are an important class of compounds in medicinal and agricultural chemistry. Catalytic C(sp3 )-O cross-coupling of alkyl electrophiles with phenols is an unexplored disconnection strategy to the synthesis of alkyl aryl ethers, with the potential to overcome some of the major limitations of existing methods such as C(sp2 )-O cross-coupling and SN 2 reactions. Reported here is a tandem photoredox and copper catalysis to achieve decarboxylative C(sp3 )-O coupling of alkyl N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI) esters with phenols under mild reaction conditions. This method was used to synthesize a diverse set of alkyl aryl ethers using readily available alkyl carboxylic acids, including many natural products and drug molecules. Complementarity in scope and functional-group tolerance to existing methods was demonstrated.
RESUMO
Alkyl amines are an important class of organic compounds in medicinal and materials chemistry. Until now very have been very few methods for the synthesis of alkyl amines by metal-catalyzed cross-coupling of alkyl electrophiles with nitrogen nucleophiles. Described here is an approach to employ tandem photoredox and copper catalysis to enable the cross-coupling of alkyl N-hydroxyphthalimide esters, readily derived from alkyl carboxylic acids, with benzophenone-derived imines. Hydrolysis of the coupling products furnish alkylated primary amines. Primary, secondary, and tertiary alkyl groups can be transferred, and the coupling tolerates a diverse set of functional groups. The method allows rapid functionalization of natural products and drugs, and can be used to expedite syntheses of pharmaceuticals from readily available chemical feedstocks.
