Nickel-Catalyzed Intramolecular Hydrosilylation of Alkynes: Embracing Conventional and Electrochemical Routes

Nickel-catalyzed intramolecular hydrosilylation can be efficiently achieved with high regio- and stereoselectivities through two distinct methodologies. The first approach utilizes a conventional method, involving the reduction of nickel salt (NiBr2-2,2'-bipyridine) using manganese metal. The second method employs a one-step electrochemical reaction, utilizing the sacrificial anode process and NiBr2bipy catalysis. Both methods yield silylated heterocycles in good to high yields through a syn-exo-dig cyclization process. Control experiments and molecular electrochemistry (cyclic voltammetry) provided further insights into the reaction mechanism.

Dehydrogenative oxidation of hydrosilanes using gold nanoparticle deposited on citric acid-modified fibrillated cellulose: unveiling the role of molecular oxygen

Efficient and environmentally friendly synthesis of silanols is a crucial issue across the broad fields of academic and industrial chemistry. Herein, we describe the dehydrogenative oxidation of hydrosilane using a gold nanoparticle catalyst supported by fibrillated citric acid-modified cellulose (F-CAC). Au:F-CAC catalysts with various particle sizes (1.7 nm, 4.9 nm, and 7.7 nm) were prepared using the trans-deposition method, a technique previously reported by our group. These catalysts exhibited significant catalytic activity to produce silanols with high turnover frequency (TOF) of up to 7028 h-1. Recycling experiments and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation represented the high durability of Au:F-CAC under the reaction conditions, allowing kinetic studies on size dependency. Mechanistic studies were conducted, including isotope labelling experiments, kinetics, and various spectroscopies. Notably, the near ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (NAP-XPS) of the model catalyst (Au:PVP) revealed the formation of catalytically active cationic Au sites on the surface through the adsorption of molecular oxygen, providing a new insight into the reaction mechanism.

Organocatalytic Asymmetric Synthesis of Si-Stereogenic Siloxanols

We report the organocatalytic synthesis of Si-stereogenic compounds via desymmetrization of a prochiral silanediol with a chiral imidazole-containing catalyst. This metal-free silylation method affords high yields with enantioselectivity up to 98:2 for various silanediol and silyl chloride substrate combinations (including secondary alkyl, vinyl, and H groups), accessing products with potential for further elaboration. NMR and X-ray studies reveal insight into the H-bonding interactions between the imidazole organocatalyst and the silanediol and the dual activating role of the Lewis basic imidazole to account for the high enantioselectivity.

Catalytic Synthesis of Silanols by Hydroxylation of Hydrosilanes: From Chemoselectivity to Enantioselectivity

As a crucial class of functional molecules in organosilicon chemistry, silanols are found valuable applications in the fields of modern science and will be a potentially powerful framework for biologically active compounds or functional materials. It has witnessed an increasing demand for non-natural organosilanols, as well as the progress in the synthesis of these structural features. From the classic preparative methods to the catalytic selective oxidation of hydrosilanes, electrochemical hydrolysis of hydrosilanes, and then the construction of the most challenging silicon-stereogenic silanols. This review summarized the progress in the catalyzed synthesis of silanols via hydroxylation of hydrosilanes in the last decade, with a particular emphasis on the latest elegant developments in the desymmetrization strategy for the enantioselective synthesis of silicon-stereogenic silanols from dihydrosilanes.

Synthetic strategies to access silacycles

In comparison with all-carbon parent compounds, the incorporation of Si-element into carboskeletons generally endows the corresponding sila-analogues with unique biological activity and physical-chemical properties. Silacycles have recently shown promising application potential in biological chemistry, pharmaceuticals industry, and material chemistry. Therefore, the development of efficient methodology to assemble versatile silacycles has aroused increasing concerns in the past decades. In this review, recent advances in the synthesis of silacycle-system are briefly summarized, including transition metal-catalytic and photocatalytic strategies by employing arylsilanes, alkylsilane, vinylsilane, hydrosilanes, and alkynylsilanes, etc. as starting materials. Moreover, a clear presentation and understanding of the mechanistic aspects and features of these developed reaction methodologies have been high-lighted.

Chiral Silanols: Strategies and Tactics for Their Synthesis

Silanols are valuable and important compounds, which have found widespread applications in the field of materials science, synthetic chemistry, and medicinal chemistry. Although a handful of approaches have been developed for the synthesis of various silanols, access to enantioenriched silicon-stereogenic silanols remains underdeveloped. This Concept article intends to summarize and highlight recent advances in the construction of silicon-stereogenic silanols and endeavors to encourage further research in this area.

Oxidation of Pd(II) with disilane in a palladium-catalyzed disilylation of aryl halides: a theoretical view

Density functional theory (DFT) calculation has been used to reveal the mechanism of the Pd-catalyzed disilylation reaction of aryl halides. The DFT calculations indicate that the reaction starts with the oxidative addition of the C-I bond to the Pd(0) catalyst. Concerted metalation-deprotonation (CMD) can then generate a five-membered palladacycle. Insertion of Pd(ii) into the Si-Si bond in disilane followed by two sequential steps of reductive eliminations yields the disilylation product and regenerates the Pd(0) catalyst. According to the NPA charge analysis along the reaction coordinates, the formal oxidative addition of the Si-Si bond to palladium could be considered as the insertion of palladium into the Si-Si bond. However, the conventional oxidative addition of the C-I bond to palladium is exactly an oxidation process with the electron transfer from the palladium atom to the C-I bond. Therefore, electron rich Pd(0) is beneficial for the oxidation process, and Pd(ii) prone to acquire electrons is beneficial for the insertion process.

Synthesis of 2-Aryl Acetophenones via Hydrobromination and Oxy-isomerization of (o-Arylethynyl)benzyl Alcohols

Hydrobromination and oxy-isomerization of (o-arylethynyl)benzyl alcohols to yield brominated aryl ketones were achieved with bromotrimethylsilane. The substrate scope suggested that vinyl carbocations, stabilized by the conjugated aryl groups, are the reaction intermediates. 1H-Isochromene was also detected by ¹H NMR, and an isolated 1H-isochromene was converted to the product when retreated with TMSBr. The formation of 1H-isochromene is equivalent to a 6-endo-dig cyclization and contrasts with the corresponding reactions under basic conditions, in which the 5-exo-dig process dominated.

Catalytic Enantioselective Dehydrogenative Si-O Coupling to Access Chiroptical Silicon-Stereogenic Siloxanes and Alkoxysilanes

A rhodium-catalyzed enantioselective construction of triorgano-substituted silicon-stereogenic siloxanes and alkoxysilanes is developed. This process undergoes a direct intermolecular dehydrogenative Si-O coupling between dihydrosilanes with silanols or alocohols, giving access to a variety of highly functionalized chiral siloxanes and alkoxysilanes in decent yields with excellent stereocontrol, that significantly expand the chemical space of the silicon-centered chiral molecules. Further utility of this process was illustrated by the construction of CPL-active (circularly polarized luminescence) silicon-stereogenic alkoxysilane small organic molecules. Optically pure bis-alkoxysilane containing two silicon-stereogenic centers and three pyrene groups displayed a remarkable g_lum value with a high fluorescence quantum efficiency (g_lum = 0.011, Φ_F = 0.55), which could have great potential application prospects in chiral organic optoelectronic materials.

The Discovery of Multifunctional Chiral P Ligands for the Catalytic Construction of Quaternary Carbon/Silicon and Multiple Stereogenic Centers

The development of highly effective chiral ligands is a key topic in enhancing the catalytic activity and selectivity in metal-catalyzed asymmetric synthesis. Traditionally, the difficulty of ligand synthesis, insufficient accuracy in controlling the stereoselectivity, and poor universality of the systems often become obstacles in this field. Using the concept of nonequivalent coordination to the metal, our group has designed and synthesized a series of new chiral catalysts to access various carbon/silicon and/or multiple stereogenic centers containing products with excellent chemo-, diastereo-, and enantioselectivity.In this Account, we summarize a series of new phosphine ligands with multiple stereogenic centers that have been developed in our laboratory. These ligands exhibited good to excellent performance in the transition-metal-catalyzed enantioselective construction of quaternary carbon/silicon and multiple stereogenic centers. In the first section, notable examples of the design and synthesis of new chiral ligands by non-covalent interaction-based multisite activation are described. The integrations of axial chirality, atom-centered chirality, and chiral anions and multifunctional groups into a single scaffold are individually highlighted, as represented by Ar-BINMOLs and their derivative ligands, HZNU-Phos, Fei-Phos, and Xing-Phos. In the second, third, and fourth sections, the enantioselective construction of quaternary carbon stereocenters, multiple stereogenic centers, and silicon stereogenic centers using our newly developed chiral ligands is summarized. These sections refer to detailed reaction information in the chiral-ligand-controlled asymmetric catalysis based on the concept of nonequivalent coordination with multisite activation. Accordingly, a wide array of transition metal and main-group metal catalysts has been applied to the enantioselective synthesis of chiral heterocycles, amino acid derivatives, cyclic ketones, alkenes, and organosilicon compounds bearing one to five stereocenters.This Account shows that this new model of multifunctional ligand-controlled catalysts exhibits excellent stereocontrol and catalytic efficiency, especially in a stereodivergent and atom-economical fashion. Furthermore, a brief mechanistic understanding of the origin of enantioselectivity from our newly developed chiral catalyst systems could inspire further development of new ligands and enhancement of enantioselective synthesis by asymmetric metal catalysis.

Enantioselective Construction of Si-Stereogenic Center via Rhodium-Catalyzed Intermolecular Hydrosilylation of Alkene

Catalytic, enantioselective synthesis of stereogenic silicon compounds remains a challenge. Herein, we report a rhodium-catalyzed regio- and enantio-selective intermolecular hydrosilylation of alkene with prochiral dihydrosilane. This new method features a simple catalytic system, mild reaction conditions and a wide functional group tolerance.

Cyclic metal(oid) clusters control platinum-catalysed hydrosilylation reactions: from soluble to zeolite and MOF catalysts

The Pt-catalysed addition of silanes to functional groups such as alkenes, alkynes, carbonyls and alcohols, i.e. the hydrosilylation reaction, is a fundamental transformation in industrial and academic chemistry, often claimed as the most important application of Pt catalysts in solution. However, the exact nature of the Pt active species and its mechanism of action is not well understood yet, particularly regarding regioselectivity. Here, experimental and computational studies together with an ad hoc graphical method show that the hydroaddition of alkynes proceeds through Pt-Si-H clusters of 3-5 atoms (metal(oid) association) in parts per million amounts (ppm), which decrease the energy of the transition state and direct the regioselectivity of the reaction. Based on these findings, new extremely-active (ppm) microporous solid catalysts for the hydrosilylation of alkynes, alkenes and alcohols have been developed, paving the way for more environmentally-benign industrial applications.

Stereo- and regio-selective synthesis of silicon-containing diborylalkenes via platinum-catalyzed mono-lateral diboration of dialkynylsilanes

A highly chemoselective platinum-catalyzed mono-lateral diboration of dialkynylsilanes for the construction of silicon-tethered alkynyl diborylalkenes is described, in which tris(4-methoxyphenyl)phosphine was found to be an effective ligand for the cis-addition of diboron agents to the silicon-tethered alkynes, and the chiral ligand (AFSi-Phos)-mediated diboration of dialkynylsilanes resulted in the desymmetric construction of silicon-stereogenic centers with promising enantioselectivity.

Controllable Si-C Bond Activation Enables Stereocontrol in the Palladium-Catalyzed [4+2] Annulation of Cyclopropenes with Benzosilacyclobutanes

A novel and unusual palladium-catalyzed [4+2] annulation of cyclopropenes with benzosilacyclobutanes is reported. This reaction occurred through chemoselective Si-C(sp² ) bond activation in synergy with ring expansion/insertion of cyclopropenes to form new C(sp² )-C(sp³ ) and Si-C(sp³ ) bonds. An array of previously elusive bicyclic skeleton with high strain, silabicyclo[4.1.0]heptanes, were formed in good yields with excellent diastereoselectivity under mild conditions. An asymmetric version of the reaction with a chiral phosphoramidite ligand furnished a variety of chiral bicyclic silaheterocycle derivatives with good enantioselectivity (up to 95.5:4.5 er). Owing to the mild reaction conditions, the good stereoselectivity profile, and the ready availability of the functionalized precursors, this process constitutes a useful and straightforward strategy for the synthesis of densely functionalized silacycles.

Probing enantioselectivity in rhodium-catalyzed Si–C bond cleavage to construct silicon-stereocenters: a theoretical study

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that favorable oxidative addition/reductive elimination process from arylrhodium complex determines the enantioselectivity.