Silylated Cyclohexadienes: New Alternatives to Tributyltin Hydride in Free Radical Chemistry We are grateful to Prof. Dr. Dieter Seebach for generous financial support and to Prof. Dr. Erick M. Carreira for helpful discussions during the preparation of the manuscript. We also thank the Swiss Science National Foundation (2100-055280.98/1) for funding our work

Generation of alkyl and acyl radicals by visible-light photoredox catalysis: direct activation of C-O bonds in organic transformations

Alkyl and acyl radicals play a critical role in the advancement of chemical synthesis. The generation of acyl and alkyl radicals by activation of C-O bonds using visible-light photoredox catalysis offers a mild and environmentally benign approach to useful chemical transformations. Alcohols, carboxylic acids, anhydrides, xanthates, oxalates, N-phthalimides, and thiocarbonates are some examples of alkyl and acyl precursors that can produce reactive radicals by homolysis of the C-O bond. These radicals can then go through a variety of transformations that are beneficial for the construction of synthetic materials that are otherwise difficult to access. This study summarizes current developments in the use of organic photocatalysts, transition-metal photoredox catalysts, and metallaphotocatalysts to produce acyl and alkyl radicals driven by visible light.

Formoxyboranes as hydroborane surrogates for the catalytic reduction of carbonyls through transfer hydroboration

A new class of Lewis base stabilized formoxyboranes demonstrates the feasibility of catalytic transfer hydroboration. In the presence of a ruthenium catalyst, they have shown broad applicability for reducing carbonyl compounds. Various borylated alcohols are obtained in high selectivity and yields up to 99%, tolerating several functional groups. Computational studies enabled to propose a mechanism for this transformation, revealing the role of the ruthenium catalyst and the absence of hydroborane intermediates.

Photocatalytic and Electrochemical Borylation and Silylation Reactions

Due to their high versatility borylated and silylated compounds are inevitable synthons for organic chemists. To escape the classical hydroboration/hydrosilylation paradigm, chemists turned their attention to more modern and green methods such as photoredox chemistry and electrosynthesis. This account focuses on novel methods for the generation of boryl and silyl radicals to forge C-B and C-Si bonds from our group.

2,2'-Biquinoline-Based Recyclable Electroauxiliaries for the Generation of Alkyl Radicals via C-C Bond Cleavage

Alkyl radical precursors are essential for a wide variety of photocatalytic and 3d-metal-catalyzed C-C bond forming reactions. Neutral organic heterocycles as electroauxiliaries such as 4-alkyl Hantzsch esters have become reliable tools for alkyl radical formation. Here we show that 2,2'-biquinoline-derived alkyl-substituted dihydroquinolines act as competent radical precursors with the ability to form primary, secondary and tertiary alkyl radicals. Hydroalkylation of benzalmalononitriles and N-Boc protected diazenes has been achieved through copper catalysis under mild conditions of 50 °C with good to very good yields of up to 85 %. Furthermore, the dihydroquinolines' reactivity towards a denitrative alkylation of nitroolefins such as β-nitrostyrene was discovered. Most importantly, the released biquinoline can be recycled, which greatly improves the overall atom-economy of these alkyl radical precursors in comparison to previous N-heterocyclic electroauxiliaries.

Organic Synthesis Using Nitroxides

Nitroxides, also known as nitroxyl radicals, are long-lived or stable radicals with the general structure R1R2N-O•. The spin distribution over the nitroxide N and O atoms contributes to the thermodynamic stability of these radicals. The presence of bulky N-substituents R1 and R2 prevents nitroxide radical dimerization, ensuring their kinetic stability. Despite their reactivity toward various transient C radicals, some nitroxides can be easily stored under air at room temperature. Furthermore, nitroxides can be oxidized to oxoammonium salts (R1R2N═O+) or reduced to anions (R1R2N-O-), enabling them to act as valuable oxidants or reductants depending on their oxidation state. Therefore, they exhibit interesting reactivity across all three oxidation states. Due to these fascinating properties, nitroxides find extensive applications in diverse fields such as biochemistry, medicinal chemistry, materials science, and organic synthesis. This review focuses on the versatile applications of nitroxides in organic synthesis. For their use in other important fields, we will refer to several review articles. The introductory part provides a brief overview of the history of nitroxide chemistry. Subsequently, the key methods for preparing nitroxides are discussed, followed by an examination of their structural diversity and physical properties. The main portion of this review is dedicated to oxidation reactions, wherein parent nitroxides or their corresponding oxoammonium salts serve as active species. It will be demonstrated that various functional groups (such as alcohols, amines, enolates, and alkanes among others) can be efficiently oxidized. These oxidations can be carried out using nitroxides as catalysts in combination with various stoichiometric terminal oxidants. By reducing nitroxides to their corresponding anions, they become effective reducing reagents with intriguing applications in organic synthesis. Nitroxides possess the ability to selectively react with transient radicals, making them useful for terminating radical cascade reactions by forming alkoxyamines. Depending on their structure, alkoxyamines exhibit weak C-O bonds, allowing for the thermal generation of C radicals through reversible C-O bond cleavage. Such thermally generated C radicals can participate in various radical transformations, as discussed toward the end of this review. Furthermore, the application of this strategy in natural product synthesis will be presented.

2-Silylated Dihydroquinazolinone as a Photocatalytic Energy Transfer Enabled Radical Hydrosilylation Reagent

The hydrosilylation of alkenes is one of the most important methods for the synthesis of organosilicon compounds. In addition to the platinum-catalyzed hydrosilylation, silyl radical addition reactions are notable as economic reactions. An efficient and widely applicable silyl radical addition reaction was developed by using 2-silylated dihydroquinazolinone derivatives under photocatalytic conditions. Electron-deficient alkenes and styrene derivatives underwent hydrosilylation to give addition products in good to high yields. Mechanistic studies indicated that the photocatalyst functioned not as a photoredox catalyst but as an energy transfer catalyst. DFT calculations clarified that the triplet excited state of 2-silylated dihydroquinazolinone derivatives released a silyl radical through the homolytic cleavage of a carbon-silicon bond, and this was followed by the hydrogen atom transfer pathway, not the redox pathway.

Photocatalyzed Dowd-Beckwith radical-polar crossover reaction for the synthesis of medium-sized carbocyclic compounds

The Dowd-Beckwith reaction, a ring-expansion of carbonyl compounds via alkoxy radicals, is a powerful approach for synthesizing medium to large-sized carbocyclic scaffolds, which takes advantage of existing ring structures and avoids entropic and enthalpic factors that arise from the end-to-end cyclization strategies. However, the Dowd-Beckwith ring-expansion followed by H-atom abstraction is still the dominating pathway, which hampers its synthetic applications, and there currently exist no reports on the functionalization of ring-expanded radicals using non-carbon based nucleophilic reagents. Herein, we report a redox-neutral decarboxylative Dowd-Beckwith/radical-polar crossover (RPC) sequence that delivers functionalized medium-sized carbocyclic compounds with broad functional group tolerance. The reaction allows one-carbon ring-expansion of 4-, 5-, 6-, 7-, and 8-membered ring substrates and can also be applied to three-carbon chain incorporation, enabling remote functionalization in medium-sized rings.

Deep Electroreductive Chemistry: Harnessing Carbon- and Silicon-based Reactive Intermediates in Organic Synthesis

This Viewpoint outlines our recent contribution in electroreductive synthesis. Specifically, we leveraged deeply reducing potentials provided by electrochemistry to generate radical and anionic intermediates from readily available alkyl halides and chlorosilanes. Harnessing the distinct reactivities of radicals and anions, we have achieved several challenging transformations to construct C-C, C-Si, and Si-Si bonds. We highlight the mechanistic design principle that underpinned the development of each transformation and provide a view forward on future opportunities in growing area of reductive electrosynthesis.

Visible-Light-Driven Silyl or Germyl Radical Generation via Si-C or Ge-C Bond Homolysis

We report a simple, rapid, and selective protocol for visible-light-driven generation of silyl radicals through photoredox-induced Si-C bond homolysis. Irradiating 3-silyl-1,4-cyclohexadienes with blue light in the presence of a commercially available photocatalyst smoothly generated silyl radicals bearing various substituents within 1 h, and these radicals were trapped by a broad range of alkenes to afford products in good yields. This process is also available for efficient generation of germyl radicals.

Decarboxylative C-H silylation of N-heteroarenes with silanecarboxylic acids

Established decarboxylative Minisci reactions are limited to aliphatic carboxylic acids, as their analogs, silanecarboxylic acids, have been rarely investigated. Herein, we present a new decarboxylative Minisci-type reaction of N-heteroarenes with silanecarboxylic acids under photo- or silver-mediated conditions. This C-H silylation strategy provides efficient access to diverse N-heteroarylsilanes in moderate to excellent yields with high regioselectivity, among which Ag-catalysed decarboxylation of silanecarboxylic acids furnishes an unprecedented method for silyl radical generation.

Halogen-atom and group transfer reactivity enabled by hydrogen tunneling

The generation of carbon radicals by halogen-atom and group transfer reactions is generally achieved using tin and silicon reagents that maximize the interplay of enthalpic (thermodynamic) and polar (kinetic) effects. In this work, we demonstrate a distinct reactivity mode enabled by quantum mechanical tunneling that uses the cyclohexadiene derivative γ-terpinene as the abstractor under mild photochemical conditions. This protocol activates alkyl and aryl halides as well as several alcohol and thiol derivatives. Experimental and computational studies unveiled a noncanonical pathway whereby a cyclohexadienyl radical undergoes concerted aromatization and halogen-atom or group abstraction through the reactivity of an effective H atom. This activation mechanism is seemingly thermodynamically and kinetically unfavorable but is rendered feasible through quantum tunneling.

Silyl formates as hydrosilane surrogates for the transfer hydrosilylation of ketones

A transfer hydrosilylation of ketones employing silyl formates as hydrosilane surrogates under mild conditions is presented. A total of 24 examples of ketones have been successfully converted to their corresponding silyl ethers with 61-99% yields in the presence of a PN^HP-based ruthenium catalyst and silyl formate reagent. The crucial role of the ligand for the transformation is demonstrated.

Visible Light-Induced Hydrosilylation of Electron-Deficient Alkenes by Iron Catalysis

Herein, we reported a method for iron-catalyzed, visible-light-induced hydrosilylation reactions of electron-deficient alkenes to produce value-added silicon compounds. Alkenes bearing functional groups with different steric properties were suitable substrates, as were derivatives of structurally complex natural products. Mechanistic studies showed that chlorine radicals generated by iron-catalyzed ligand-to-metal charge transfer in the presence of lithium chloride promoted the formation of silyl radicals.

Reduced Phenalenyl in Catalytic Dehalogenative Deuteration and Hydrodehalogenation of Aryl Halides

Dehalogenative deuteration reactions are generally performed through metal-mediated processes. This report demonstrates a mild protocol for hydrodehalogenation and dehalogenative deuteration of aryl/heteroaryl halides (39 examples) using a reduced odd alternant hydrocarbon phenalenyl under transition metal-free conditions and has been employed successfully for the incorporation of deuterium in various biologically active compounds. The combined approach of experimental and theoretical studies revealed a single electron transfer-based mechanism.

An Electroreductive Approach to Radical Silylation via the Activation of Strong Si-Cl Bond

The construction of C(sp³)-Si bonds is important in synthetic, medicinal, and materials chemistry. In this context, reactions mediated by silyl radicals have become increasingly attractive but methods for accessing these intermediates remain limited. We present a new strategy for silyl radical generation via electroreduction of readily available chlorosilanes. At highly biased potentials, electrochemistry grants access to silyl radicals through energetically uphill reductive cleavage of strong Si-Cl bonds. This strategy proved to be general in various alkene silylation reactions including disilylation, hydrosilylation, and allylic silylation under simple and transition-metal-free conditions.

Radical Hydroalkylation and Hydroacylation of Alkenes by the Use of Benzothiazoline under Thermal Conditions

The hydroalkylation and hydroacylation of electron-deficient alkenes proceeded smoothly by using benzothiazoline derivatives as radical-transfer reagents under thermal conditions without light irradiation or any additive. Both benzyl and benzoyl moieties were transferred efficiently.

Generation of Alkyl Radicals: From the Tyranny of Tin to the Photon Democracy

Alkyl radicals are key intermediates in organic synthesis. Their classic generation from alkyl halides has a severe drawback due to the employment of toxic tin hydrides to the point that "flight from the tyranny of tin" in radical processes was considered for a long time an unavoidable issue. This review summarizes the main alternative approaches for the generation of unstabilized alkyl radicals, using photons as traceless promoters. The recent development in photochemical and photocatalyzed processes enabled the discovery of a plethora of new alkyl radical precursors, opening the world of radical chemistry to a broader community, thus allowing a new era of photon democracy.

Exploiting the radical reactivity of diazaphosphinanes in hydrodehalogenations and cascade cyclizations

The remarkable reducibility of diazaphosphinanes has been extensively applied in various hydrogenations, based on and yet limited by their well-known hydridic reactivity. Here we exploited their unprecedented radical reactivity to implement hydrodehalogenations and cascade cyclizations originally inaccessible by hydride transfer. These reactions feature a broad substrate scope, high efficiency and simplicity of manipulation. Mechanistic studies suggested a radical chain process in which a phosphinyl radical is generated in a catalytic cycle via hydrogen-atom transfer from diazaphosphinanes. The radical reactivity of diazaphosphinanes disclosed here differs from their well-established hydridic reactivity, and hence, opens a new avenue for diazaphosphinane applications in organic syntheses.

Iron-Catalyzed Oxyalkylation of Terminal Alkynes with Alkyl Iodides

A general oxyalkylation of terminal alkynes enabled by iron catalysis has been developed. Primary and secondary alkyl iodides acted as the alkylating reagents and afforded a range of α-alkylated ketones under mild reaction conditions. Acetyl tert-butyl peroxide (TBPA) was used as the radical relay precursor, providing the initiated methyl radical to start the radical relay process. Preliminary mechanistic studies were conducted, and late-stage functionalizations of natural product derivatives were performed.

Cooperative Palladium/Lewis Acid-Catalyzed Transfer Hydrocyanation of Alkenes and Alkynes Using 1-Methylcyclohexa-2,5-diene-1-carbonitrile

Catalytic transfer hydrocyanation represents a clean and safe alternative to hydrocyanation processes using toxic HCN gas. Such reactions provide access to pharmaceutically important nitrile derivatives starting with alkenes and alkynes. Herein, an efficient and practical cooperative palladium/Lewis acid-catalyzed transfer hydrocyanation of alkenes and alkynes is presented using 1-methylcyclohexa-2,5-diene-1-carbonitrile as a benign and readily available HCN source. A large set of nitrile derivatives (>50 examples) are prepared from both aliphatic and aromatic alkenes with good to excellent anti-Markovnikov selectivity. A range of aliphatic alkenes engage in selective hydrocyanation to provide the corresponding nitriles. The introduced method is useful for chain walking hydrocyanation of internal alkenes to afford terminal nitriles in good regioselectivities. This protocol is also applicable to late-stage modification of bioactive molecules.

Radical Hydrodehalogenation of Aryl Bromides and Chlorides with Sodium Hydride and 1,4-Dioxane

A practical method for radical chain reduction of various aryl bromides and chlorides is introduced. The thermal process uses NaH and 1,4-dioxane as reagents and 1,10-phenanthroline as an initiator. Hydrodehalogenation can be combined with typical cyclization reactions, proving the nature of the radical mechanism. These chain reactions proceed by electron catalysis. DFT calculations and mechanistic studies support the suggested mechanism.

Radical cascade cyclization of 1,n-enynes and diynes for the synthesis of carbocycles and heterocycles

This review highlights recent advances in radical cascade cyclization of 1,n-enynes and diynes for the construction of carbo- and heterocycles.

Metal-free oxidative decarbonylative coupling of aromatic aldehydes with arenes: direct access to biaryls

A metal-free oxidative decarbonylative coupling of aromatic aldehydes with electron-rich or electron-deficient arenes to produce biaryl compounds was developed. This novel coupling was proposed to proceed via a non-chain radical homolytic aromatic substitution (HAS) type mechanism, based on the substrate scope, ortho-regioselectivity, radical trapping experiments and DFT calculation studies. With the ready availability of aromatic aldehydes and arenes, metal-free conditions should make this coupling attractive for the biaryl synthesis.

9-Silafluorenes via base-promoted homolytic aromatic substitution (BHAS)--the electron as a catalyst

Transition-metal-free intramolecular radical silylation of 2-diphenylsilylbiaryls via base-promoted homolytic aromatic substitution (BHAS) to give 9-silafluorenes is reported. 2-Diphenylsilylbiaryls are readily prepared, and cross dehydrogenative silylation occurs with tert-butylhydroperoxide (TBHP) as a cheap stoichiometric oxidant in the presence of a small amount of tetrabutylammonium iodide (TBAI) as an initiator. These cyclizations are catalyzed by the electron.

Base-catalyzed intramolecular hydroamination of cyclohexa-2,5-dienes: insights into the mechanism through DFT calculations and application to the total synthesis of epi-elwesine

The base-catalyzed intramolecular hydroamination of 1-ethylaminocyclohexa-2,5-dienes is described. The transformation proceeds through isomerization of the cyclohexa-1,4-dienyl fragment into the corresponding conjugated 1,3-diene prior to the hydroamination step. Attaching a chiral glycinol ether auxiliary on the amino group allows the protonation to occur with complete diastereocontrol. The resulting lithium amide then adds onto the 1,3-dienyl moiety, affording the desired fused pyrrolidine ring along with the corresponding lithium allylic anion. Protonation of the latter then proceeds with high regiocontrol to favor the resulting allylic amines. In contrast, when the reaction was performed on primary amines, fused pyrrolidines bearing a homoallylic amino group were obtained. The stereochemical course of the process and determination of the reaction pathways were established based on calculations performed at the DFT level. Finally, application of the methodology to the enantioselective synthesis of (+)-epi-elwesine, a crinane alkaloid, is described.

Visible light photoredox-catalyzed deoxygenation of alcohols

Carbon–oxygen single bonds are ubiquitous in natural products whereas efficient methods for their reductive defunctionalization are rare. In this work an environmentally benign protocol for the activation of carbon–oxygen single bonds of alcohols towards a reductive bond cleavage under visible light photocatalysis was developed. Alcohols were activated as 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)-substituted benzoates and irradiation with blue light in the presence of [Ir(ppy)₂(dtb-bpy)](PF₆) as visible light photocatalyst and Hünig’s base as sacrificial electron donor in an acetonitrile/water mixture generally gave good to excellent yields of the desired defunctionalized compounds. Functional group tolerance is high but the protocol developed is limited to benzylic, α-carbonyl, and α-cyanoalcohols; with other alcohols a slow partial C–F bond reduction in the 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)benzoate moiety occurs.

Alkyl transfer from C–C cleavage: replacing the nitro group of nitro-olefins

Hydrogenation is only the beginning: alkyl groups are mildly transferred from alkyl substituted Hantzsch esters to replace the nitro groups of nitro olefins to providetrans-olefins in moderate to excellent yields.

Radical reactions of borohydrides

This review article focuses on state-of-the-art borohydride based radical reactions, also covering earlier work, kinetics and some DFT calculations with respect to the hydrogen transfer mechanism.

Silylboranes as new sources of silyl radicals for chain-transfer reactions

Various silylboranes, which were outfitted with a catecholborane moiety at one end and a (Me(3)Si)(3)Si moiety at the other end of a carbon chain, were prepared through the hydroboration of the corresponding unsaturated silanes. The C-centered radical species generated from these silylboranes efficiently cyclized to provide, through a 5-exo intramolecular homolytic substitution at the silicon center, the corresponding silacycle and a Me(3)Si radical that was subsequently trapped by sulfonyl acceptors. These cyclizations proceeded at unprecedented rates, due, in part, to a strong gem-dialkyl effect that was attributable to the presence of bulky substituents on a quaternary center located on the chain. In parallel, we designed arylsilylboranes that produced silyl radicals through a 1,5-hydrogen transfer. Such silyl radicals may be valuable radical chain carriers, for instance, in oximation reactions of alkyl halides. Finally, computational studies allowed calculation of activation barriers of the homolytic substitution step and additionally illustrated that the overall reaction mechanism involved a transition state in which the attacking carbon center, the central silicon atom, and the Me(3)Si leaving group were collinear.