Domino reactions for the synthesis of bridged bicyclic frameworks: fast access to bicyclo[n.3.1]alkanes

All-carbon quaternary stereogenic centers in acyclic systems through the creation of several C-C bonds per chemical step

In the past few decades, it has become clear that asymmetric catalysis is one of the most powerful methods for the construction of carbon-carbon as well as carbon-heteroatom bonds in a stereoselective manner. However, when structural complexity increases (i.e., all-carbon quaternary stereogenic center), the difficulty in reaching the desired adducts through asymmetric catalytic reactions leads to a single carbon-carbon bond-forming event per chemical step between two components. Issues of efficiency and convergence should therefore be addressed to avoid extraneous chemical steps. In this Perspective, we present approaches that tackle the stimulating problem of efficiency while answering interesting synthetic challenges. Ideally, if one could create all-carbon quaternary stereogenic centers via the creation of several new carbon-carbon bonds in an acyclic system and in a single-pot operation from simple precursors, it would certainly open new horizons toward solving the synthetic problems. Even more important for any further design, the presence of polyreactive intermediates in synthesis (bismetalated, carbenoid, and oxenoids species) becomes now an indispensable tool, as it creates consecutively the same number of carbon-carbon bonds as in a multi-step process, but in a single-pot operation.

Catalyst-free one-pot domino reactions for selective synthesis of functionalized 2,8-oxazabicyclo[3.3.1]-nonanes and 5H-indeno[1,2-b]pyridin-5-ones

A simple and efficient method for one-pot selective synthesis of functionalized 2,8-oxazaxabicyclo[3.3.1]nonanes and hydroxy-containing 5H-indeno[1,2-b]pyridin-5-ones under catalyst-free conditions has been developed.

Metal-free synthesis of cyano acrylates via cyanuric chloride-mediated three-component reactions involving a cascade consists of Knoevenagel condensation/cyano hydration/esterification

The synthesis of cyano acrylates has been achieved via an organocatalytic domino Knoevenagel reaction, hydration and esterification under metal-free conditions without using any additional solvent.

Copper-catalyzed intermolecular azidocyanation of aryl alkenes

A copper-catalyzed Markovnikov-type intermolecular azidocyanation of aryl alkenes has been developed for the first time.

A simple and catalyst free one pot access to the pyrazolone fused 2,8-dioxabicyclo[3.3.1]nonanes

Synthesis of a series of novel aryl and heteroaryl fused 2,8-dioxabicyclo[3.3.1]nonanes (3) was accomplished by one pot, catalyst free reaction of 2-hydroxy chalcones (1) with 3-trifluoromethyl substituted pyrazolones (2) in xylene at reflux temperature. The role of –CF₃ in formation of 3 was confirmed by comparing with 3-methyl pyrazolones.

Facile construction of structurally diverse thiazolidinedione-derived compounds via divergent stereoselective cascade organocatalysis and their biological exploratory studies

In this article, we present a new approach by merging two powerful synthetic tactics, divergent synthesis and cascade organocatalysis, to create a divergent cascade organocatalysis strategy for the facile construction of new "privileged" substructure-based DOS (pDOS) library. As demonstrated, notably 5 distinct molecular architectures are produced facilely from readily available simple synthons thiazolidinedione and its analogues and α,β-unsaturated aldehydes in 1-3 steps with the powerful strategy. The beauty of the chemistry is highlighted by the efficient formation of structurally new and diverse products from structurally close reactants under the similar reaction conditions. Notably, structurally diverse spiro-thiazolidinediones and -rhodanines are produced from organocatalytic enantioselective 3-component Michael-Michael-aldol cascade reactions of respective thiazolidinediones and rhodanines with enals. Nevertheless, under the similar reaction conditions, reactions of isorhodanine via a Michael-cyclization cascade lead to structurally different fused thiopyranoid scaffolds. This strategy significantly minimizes time- and cost-consuming synthetic works. Furthermore, these molecules possess high structural complexity and functional, stereochemical, and skeletal diversity with similarity to natural scaffolds. In the preliminary biological studies of these molecules, compounds 4f, 8a, and 10a exhibit inhibitory activity against the human breast cancer cells, while compounds 8a, 9a, and 9b display good antifungal activities against Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans. Notably, their structures are different from clinically used triazole antifungal drugs. Therefore, they could serve as good lead compounds for the development of new generation of antifungal agents.

Tandem catalysis in domino olefin cross-metathesis/intramolecular oxa-conjugate cyclization: concise synthesis of 2,6-cis-substituted tetrahydropyran derivatives

Herein, we describe the concise synthesis of 2,6-cis-substituted tetrahydropyran derivatives based on a domino olefin cross-metathesis/intramolecular oxa-conjugate cyclization (CM/IOCC) reaction. We have found that the domino CM/IOCC of δ-hydroxy olefins with α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds (e.g., trans-crotonaldehyde or N-acryloyl-2,5-dimethylpyrrole) could be efficiently achieved in the presence of the second-generation Hoveyda-Grubbs catalyst under elevated temperature conditions, directly affording 2,6-cis-substituted tetrahydropyrans in excellent yields with synthetically useful diastereoselectivity ("auto-tandem catalysis"). In addition, we have found that the domino CM/IOCC of δ-hydroxy olefins with α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds could be achieved simply by performing CM in the presence of a Brønsted acid in CH(2)Cl(2) at 25-35 °C, which delivered 2,6-cis-substituted tetrahydropyrans in good yields with excellent diastereoselectivity ("orthogonal-tandem catalysis"). To understand the mechanism of auto-tandem catalysis in the domino CM/IOCC reaction, we have investigated the role of ruthenium hydride complexes in the IOCC of a ζ-hydroxy α,β-unsaturated ketone as a model case.