Leveraging Metal and Ligand Reactive Sites for One Pot Reactions: Ligand-Centered Borenium Ions for Tandem Catalysis with Palladium.

Tandem catalysts that perform two different organic transformations in a single pot are highly desirable because they enable rapid and efficient assembly of simple organic building blocks into more complex molecules. Many examples of tandem catalysis rely on metal-catalyzed reactions involving one or more metal complexes. Remarkably, despite surging interest in the development of chemically reactive (i. e., non-innocent) ligands, there are few examples of metal complexes that leverage ligand-centered reactivity to perform catalytic reactions in tandem with separate catalytic reactions at the metal. Here we report how multifunctional Pd complexes with triaminoborane-derived diphosphorus ligands, called TBDPhos, appear to facilitate borenium-catalyzed cycloaddition reactions at the ligand, and Pd-catalyzed Stille and Suzuki cross-coupling reactions at the metal. Both transformations can be accessed in one pot to afford rare examples of tandem catalysis using separate metal and ligand catalysis sites in a single complex.

Gold-Catalyzed Iminations of Terminal Propargyl Alcohols with Anthranils with Atypical Chemoselectivity for C(1)-Additions and 1,2-Carbon Migration.

This work reports gold-catalyzed iminations of terminal propargyl alcohols with anthranils or isoxazoles to yield E-configured α-amino-2-en-1-ones and -1-als with complete chemoselectivity. These catalytic iminations occur exclusively with C(1)-nucleophilic additions on terminal alkynes, in contrast to a typical C(2)-route. For 3,3-dialkylprop-1-yn-3-ols, a methyl substituent is superior to long alkyl chains as the 1,2-migration groups toward α-imino gold carbenes. For secondary prop-1-yn-3-ols, phenyl, vinyl, and cyclopropyl substituents are better than hydrogen as the migrating groups, obviating typical gold carbene reactions. DFT calculations have been performed to rationalize the observed C(1)-regioselectivity and the preferable cyclopropyl migration based on gold carbene pathways.

Stereoselective annulation between an allene, an alkene, and two nitrosoarenes to access bis(isoxazoliodine) derivatives.

This work reports metal-free annulations between one allene, two nitrosoarenes and one electron-deficient alkene to afford bis(isoxazolidine) derivatives stereoselectively. This process involves an initial formation of isoxazolidin-4-imine oxides, followed by their dipolar [3 + 2]-cycloaddition with electron-deficient alkenes. To highlight the utility, the annulations of 5-alleneyl-1-enes with nitrosoarenes were also feasible to afford the desired bis(isoxazolidine) products with excellent stereocontrol. The resulting bis(isoxazolidine) products produced from two systems were reduced with Zn/MeOH to induce reductive N-O cleavages, yielding branched polyaminols stereoselectively.

Gold-Catalyzed Oxidations of 1,3-Diynamides with C(1) versus C(3) Regioselectivity: Catalyst-Dependent Oxidative Cyclizations in the C(3) Oxidation.

This work reports two distinct paths in catalytic oxidations of 1,3-diynamides with 8-methylquinoline oxide. A typical C(1) regioselectivity was observed for aryl-substituted 1,3-diyn-1-amides, whereas an unexpected C(3) regioselectivty occurred for 5-hydroxy1,3-diyn-1-amides. We focused on the C(3) oxidations of 5-hydroxy1,3-diyn-1-amides because we observed two oxidative cyclizations of the same substrates to yield 2-aminomethylenefuran-3(2H)-ones and 2-amino-4H-pyran-4-ones using AuCl3 and a cationic gold catalyst, respectively. Density functional theory calculations were performed to rationalize the C(3) regioselectivity on 5-hydroxy1,3-diyn-1-amides.

Gold(I)-Catalyzed 1,3-Carbofunctionalizations of Anthranils with Vinyl Propargyl Esters To Yield 1,3-Dihydrobenzo[ c]-isoxazoles.

This work describes gold-catalyzed 1,3-carbofunctionalizations of anthranils with vinyl propargyl esters to form 1,3-dihydrobenzo[ c]-isoxazoles. Excellent diastereoselectivity has been achieved to yield products containing three stereogenic carbons. These new catalytic reactions are operable with anthranils and vinyl propargyl esters over a wide scope, further manifesting the synthetic utility.

Gold-catalyzed (4+3)-annulations of 2-alkenyl-1-alkynylbenzenes with anthranils with alkyne-dependent chemoselectivity: skeletal rearrangement versus non-rearrangement.

Two distinct (4+3)-nitroxy annulations between 1,5-enynes and anthranils have been developed to access tetrahydro-1H-benzo[b]azepine derivatives; the chemoselectivity varies with the types of alkynes. Terminal alkyne substrates deliver benzo[b]azepine derivatives via a novel skeletal rearrangement while internal 1,5-enynes afford products without a rearrangement process. To elucidate the mechanism of rearrangement, we performed 13C- and 2H-labeling experiments to identify the gold-containing isobenzofulvene intermediates, but their formation relies on the presence of anthranils.

Ground-state dioxygen undergoes metal-free [3 + 2]-annulations with allenes and nitrosoarenes under ambient conditions.

The cycloadditions of molecular dioxygen with neutral π-bond motifs rely heavily on singlet-state 1O2, whereas ground state 3O2 is chemically inactive. Here we report novel [3 + 2]-annulations among ground-state 3O2 (1 bar), allenes, and nitrosoarenes at low temperatures, efficiently yielding dioxygen-containing oxacycles. With less hindered 1-arylallene derivatives, these dioxygen species undergo skeletal rearrangement to 3-hydroxy-1-ketonyl-2-imine oxides. These cycloadditions represent valuable one-pot O,N,O-trifunctionalizations of allenes. Our EPR experiments confirm the presence of 1,4-diradical intermediates from an allene/nitrosoarene mixture, which manifest the hidden diradical properties of nitrosoarenes.