CC Cross-coupling reactions for the combinatorial synthesis of novel organic materials

Preparative Fluorous Mixture Synthesis of Diazonium-Functionalized Oligo(phenylene vinylene)s

[structure: see text] A series of building blocks for the synthesis of oligo(phenylene vinylene)s (OPVs) and hybrid oligomers were prepared, and alternating Heck coupling and Horner-Wadswoth-Emmons (HWE) reactions were used to couple the building blocks. Model studies were carried out to optimize the reaction strategies. The products were made to bear aryl diazonium functionalities that allow them to be used as surface grafting moieties in hybrid silicon/molecule assemblies. A library of OPV and hybrid oligomer tetramers was synthesized using fluorous mixture synthesis (FMS). The fluorous tags, which are secondary amines bearing different numbers of fluorine atoms, were synthesized and used as phase tags in mixture synthesis. The tags and substrates were anchored together by triazene linkages. The mixture synthesis was monitored by analytical HPLC on a fluorous column, and isolation of final OPV and hybrid oligomer tetramers was achieved by preparative HPLC. At the end of the FMS, after demixing, the tagged products were detagged by cleaving the triazene linkage and generating a series of aryl diazonium compounds. The fluorous tags could be recovered and reused. The NMR spectra of the 1-aryl-3,3-dialkyltriazenes are discussed.

High-throughput approaches to catalyst discovery

High-throughput synthesis and screening approaches to catalyst discovery and optimization are systematically changing the way in which catalyst research is conducted. Increased rates of innovation, cost effectiveness, improved intellectual property, reduced time to market and an improved probability of success are some of the attractive features that demand consideration. Advances made over the past few years reveal that any initial skepticism is waning, and high-throughput approaches to catalyst discovery are now being implemented broadly in industrial and academic laboratories.

Recent advances in the discovery of organometallic catalysts using high-throughput screening assays

Combinatorial techniques were developed initially to accelerate the identification of molecules with biological activity. The successes of these techniques inspired the design of high-throughput methods to assist in the discovery of new catalysts. Over the past year, many groups in academia and industry have utilized high-throughput screening assays to reduce the time required to identify catalysts for asymmetric processes, cross-coupling reactions and other metal-catalyzed transformations. The continued success of combinatorial techniques in organometallic chemistry should propagate the development of new and improved methods to facilitate catalyst discovery.

No stirring necessary: parallel carbonylation of aryl halides with CO and various alcohols under pressure

The parallel carbonylation of aryl halides with 6-25 bar of CO in 1-mL vials in a standard autoclave was investigated. 4-Bromoacetophenone and 2-chloropyridine were used as model substrates with 102 different O-nucleophiles (primary and secondary alcohols, phenols). No inertization during the loading was necessary. Fifty esters (43 new, yield up to 60%) were isolated and characterized. Ether, ester, ketone, and sometimes even olefin functions were usually tolerated. The new method is suitable for screening and small scale products synthesis.

Combinatorial parallel synthesis and automated screening of a novel class of liquid crystalline materials

Combinatorial parallel synthesis has led to the rapid generation of a single-compound library of novel fluorinated quaterphenyls. Subsequent automated screening revealed liquid crystalline (LC) behaviour and gave qualitative relationships of molecular structures and solid state properties.