TEMPO-Enabled Electrochemical Enantioselective Oxidative Coupling of Secondary Acyclic Amines with Ketones

Electrochemical Organoselenium-Catalyzed Intermolecular Hydroazolylation of Alkenes with Low Catalyst Loadings

The organoselenium-catalyzed amination of alkenes is a promising way to construct functionalized amines. However, the use of chemical oxidants and the unavoidable formation of allylic amine or enamine are the two main limitations of these methodologies. Against this background, we herein report an electro-selenocatalytic regime for the hydroazolylation of alkenes with azoles under external oxidant-free conditions with low catalyst loadings. Moreover, this protocol enables the generation of amines without vinyl substituents.

Eosin-Y/Cu(OAc)2-catalyzed aerobic oxidative coupling reactions of glycine esters in the dark

Catalytic aerobic oxidative coupling reactions of glycine esters with β-keto acids, indoles, naphthols, and pyrrole have been realized at ambient temperature via the manipulation of the ground state reactivity of eosin-Y in the presence of Cu(OAc)₂ in the dark. This method delivers structurally diverse unnatural amino acid derivatives under mild reaction conditions. UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, high-resolution mass spectrometry, and control experiments were performed to formulate a plausible mechanistic pathway. The step economy, broad substrate scope, use of air as a green oxidant, and operationally simple set-up make this protocol highly appealing for both academic and industrial applications.

Stereoselective Oxidative Mannich Reaction of Ketones with Dihydrodibenzo-Oxazepines via a Merger of Photoredox-/Electro-Catalysis with Organocatalysis

An enantio- and diastereoselective sp³ -sp³ coupling of acyclic/cyclic ketones with dihydrodibenzo-oxazepines has been developed by merging visible light photo-redox- or electro-catalysis with organocatalysis. This approach parallelly utilizes Eosin Y or graphite electrodes for the co-catalyst-free oxidative conversion of dihydrodibenzo-oxazepines to oxazepines, followed by L-Proline catalyzed direct Mannich-type reaction with ketones. A series of enantioenriched dihydrodibenzo-oxazepines have been prepared in high yields and enantioselectivity. This method shows substantial advantages over the existing protocols by using potentially safer starting materials and cheap commercially available catalysts.

Synthetic applications of hydride abstraction reactions by organic oxidants

Carbon-hydrogen bond functionalizations provide an attractive method for streamlining organic synthesis, and many strategies have been developed for conducting these transformations. Hydride-abstracting reactions have emerged as extremely effective methods for oxidative bond-forming processes due to their mild reaction conditions and high chemoselectivity. This review will predominantly focus on the mechanism, reaction development, natural product synthesis applications, approaches to catalysis, and use in enantioselective processes for hydride abstractions by quinone, oxoammonium ion, and carbocation oxidants. These are the most commonly employed hydride-abstracting agents, but recent efforts illustrate the potential for weaker ketone and triaryl borane oxidants, which will be covered at the end of the review.

Kinetics-Based Approach to Developing Electrocatalytic Variants of Slow Oxidations: Application to Hydride Abstraction-Initiated Cyclization Reactions

Electrochemical oxidant regeneration is challenging in reactions that have a slow redox step because the steady-state concentration of the reduced oxidant is low, causing difficulties in maintaining sufficient current or preventing potential spikes. This work shows that applying an understanding of the relationship between intermediate cation stability, oxidant strength, overpotential, and concentration on reaction kinetics delivers a method for electrochemical oxoammonium ion regeneration in hydride abstraction-initiated cyclization reactions, resulting in the development of an electrocatalytic variant of a process that has a high oxidation transition state free energy. This approach should be applicable to expanding the scope of electrocatalysis to include additional slow redox processes.

Electrochemical Enantioselective Nucleophilic α-C(sp3)-H Alkenylation of 2-Acyl Imidazoles

Merging electrochemistry with asymmetric catalysis promises to provide an environmentally friendly and efficient strategy for the construction of nonracemic chiral molecules. However, in practice, significant challenges arise from the instability or incompatibility of the chiral catalysts under the electrochemical conditions at the interface of electrode and solution. Herein, we report a catalytic asymmetric indirect electrolysis employing the combination of a redox mediator and a chiral-at-rhodium Lewis acid, which achieves a previously elusive enantioselective nucleophilic α-C(sp³)-H alkenylation of ketones. Specifically, 2-acyl imidazoles react with potassium alkenyl trifluoroborates in high yields (up to 94%) and with exceptional enantioselectivities (27 examples with ≥99% ee) without the need for any additional stoichiometric oxidants (overall 40 examples). The new indirect electrosynthesis can be scaled to gram quantities and was applied to the straightforward synthesis of intermediates of the natural product cryptophycin A and a cathepsin K inhibitor.

Asymmetric oxidative Mannich reactions promoted by photocatalysis and electrochemistry

The asymmetric Mannich reaction is an essential method in contemporary organic chemistry. As a representative of clean and green synthesis methods, photochemical and electrochemical oxidation strategies have re-emerged in recent years, providing new ideas for asymmetric Mannich reactions. Numerous chiral β-amino carbonyl compounds have been accessed in satisfactory yields with excellent enantioselectivity via such novel asymmetric oxidative Mannich reactions. This minireview highlights plentiful advances in asymmetric oxidative Mannich reactions that rely on photoredox or anodic-oxidation and covers the literature from 2014 to date. Furthermore, the future development of this field is envisaged.

Atropoenantioselective Palladaelectro-Catalyzed Anilide C–H Olefinations Viable with Natural Sunlight as Sustainable Power Source

Enantioselective electrocatalyzed transformations represent a major challenge. We herein achieved atropoenantioselective pallada-electrocatalyzed C–H olefinations and C–H allylations with high efficacy and enantioselectivity under exceedingly mild reaction conditions. With (S)-5-oxoproline as the chiral ligand, activated and non-activated olefins were suitable substrates for the electro-C–H activations. Dual catalysis was devised in terms of electro-C–H olefination, along with catalytic hydrogenation. Challenging enantiomerically-enriched chiral anilide scaffolds were thereby obtained with high levels of enantio-control in the absence of toxic and cost-intensive silver salts. The resource-economy of the transformation was even improved by directly employing renewable solar energy.

Asymmetric pallada-electrocatalyzed C–H activation of achiral anilides were accomplished by catalyst control with high levels of enantioselectivity. Dual catalysis was devised, while photovoltaic cells could be used to empower the electrocatalysis.

Visible-Light-Driven Photoredox-Catalyzed C(sp3)-C(sp3) Cross-Coupling of N-arylamines with Cycloketone Oxime Esters

A novel photoredox-catalyzed C(sp3)-C(sp3) cross-coupling between N-arylamines and cycloketone oxime esters under mild conditions has been accomplished. The redox-neutral reaction proceeds good functional group tolerance and excellent regioselectivity without any...

Electrochemical Enantioselective Dihydroxylation Reaction of N-Alkenyl Nucleobases for the Construction of Chiral Acyclic Nucleosides

A simple and sustainable KI-mediated electrochemical enantioselective dihydroxylation reaction of N-alkenyl nucleobases was developed for the first time in an undivided cell. A series of chiral acyclic nucleosides bearing two...

Electrochemical radical C(sp3)–H arylation of xanthenes with electron-rich arenes

An efficient electrochemical C(sp3)–H arylation of xanthenes using a carbon anode and platinum cathode as the electrodes is disclosed.

Electrochemical Desaturative β-Acylation of Cyclic N-Aryl Amines

Herein, we disclose a straightforward, robust, and simple route to access β-substituted desaturated cyclic amines via an electrochemically driven desaturative β-functionalization of cyclic amines. This transformation is based on multiple single-electron oxidation processes using catalytic amounts of ferrocene. The reaction proceeds in the absence of stoichiometric amounts of electrolyte under mild conditions, affording the desired products with high chemo- and regioselectivity. The reaction was tolerant of a broad range of substrates and also enables late-stage β-C(sp³ )-H acylation of potentially valuable products. Preliminary mechanistic studies using cyclic voltammetry reveal the key role of ferrocene as a redox mediator in the reaction.