Synergistic promotion by intramolecular hydrogen bonding: a bi-functionally catalyzed cascade reaction for the synthesis of enantiopure chromenopyrrolidines

An effective organocatalytic asymmetric cascade reaction of o-hydroxy aromatic aldimines and β,γ-unsaturated-α-ketoesters was developed.

Catalytic dehydrogenative aromatization of cyclohexanones and cyclohexenones

Prompted by the scant attention paid by published literature reviews to the comprehensive catalytic dehydrogenative aromatization of cyclohexa(e)nones, this review describes recent methods developed to-date involving transition-metal-catalyzed oxidative aromatization and metal-free strategies for the transformation of cyclohexa(e)nones to substituted phenols.

Tryptophan/copper-catalyzed aromatization reaction of chiral cyclohexanones to phenols

By merging organocatalysis with copper catalysis, a highly efficient stereospecific approach for the synthesis of chiral phenols from cyclohexanones has been developed for the first time. The aromatization reaction proceeds through the in situ formation of enone intermediates and further subsequent bromination/dehydrobromination reactions. And a series of functionalized phenol derivatives are obtained in good yields (up to 89%) and good to excellent enantioselectivities (up to 99% ee).

Organocatalytic Friedel-Crafts Alkylation/Lactonization Reaction of Naphthols with 3-Trifluoroethylidene Oxindoles: The Asymmetric Synthesis of Dihydrocoumarins

Naphthols and 3-trifluoroethylidene oxindoles were found to undergo an asymmetric Friedel-Crafts alkylation/lactonization reaction, catalyzed by only 2.5 mol % of a quinine-derived squaramide catalyst, to afford the corresponding α-aryl-β-trifluoromethyl dihydrocoumarin derivatives in high yields (up to 99 %) with excellent enantio- and diastereoselectivities (up to 98 % ee, >20:1 d.r.). Importantly, the lactonization proceeded by nucleophilic attack of the naphthol hydroxy group at the amide motif of the oxindoles under mild reaction conditions. This protocol represents a new strategy for the formation of dihydrocoumarins by an efficient intramolecular amide C-N bond-cleavage and esterification process.

Enantioselective Organocatalytic Construction of Spiroindane Derivatives by Intramolecular Friedel-Crafts-Type 1,4-Addition

The highly enantioselective organocatalytic construction of spiroindanes containing an all-carbon quaternary stereocenter by intramolecular Friedel-Crafts-type 1,4-addition is described. The reaction was catalyzed by a cinchonidine-based primary amine and accelerated by water and p-bromophenol. A variety of spiro compounds containing quaternary stereocenters were obtained with excellent enantioselectivity (up to 95 % ee). The reaction was applied to the asymmetric formal synthesis of the spirocyclic natural products (-)-cannabispirenones A and B.

Amine-Catalyzed Highly Regioselective and Stereoselective C(sp(2) )-C(sp(2) ) Cross-Coupling of Naphthols with trans-α,β-Unsaturated Aldehydes

A metal-free C(sp(2) )-C(sp(2) ) cross-coupling approach to highly congested (E)-α-naphtholylenals from simple naphthols and enals is described. The mild reaction conditions with pyridine hydrobromideperbromide (PHBP) as the bromination reagent in the presence of piperidine or diphenylprolinol trimethylsilyl (TMS) ether as promoters enable the process in good yields and with high chemoselectivity, regioselectivity, and stereoselectivity. The process involves an unprecedented pathway of in situ regioselective 4-bromination of 1-naphthols and the subsequent unusual aromatic nucleophilic substitution of the resulting 4-bromo-1-naphthols with the α-C(sp(2) ) of enals through a Michael-type Friedel-Crafts alkylation-dearomatization followed by a cyclopropanation ring-opening cascade process. The noteworthy features of this strategy are highlighted by the highly efficient creation of a C(sp(2) )-C(sp(2) ) bond from readily available unfunctionalized naphthols and enals catalyzed by non-metal, readily available cyclic secondary amines under mild reaction conditions.

Solvent-dependent enantiodivergence in the chlorocyclization of unsaturated carbamates

A remarkable solvent-controlled enantiodivergence is seen in the hydroquinidine 1,4-phthalazinediyl diether ((DHQD)2PHAL)-catalyzed chlorocyclization of unsaturated carbamates. Eyring plot analyses of this previously unreported reaction are used to probe and compare the R- and S-selective pathways. In the CHCl3/hexanes solvent system, the pro-R process shows a surprising increase in selectivity with increasing temperature. These studies point to a strongly solvent-dependent entropy-enthalpy balance between the pro-R and pro-S pathways.

Expanding the utility of Brønsted base catalysis: biomimetic enantioselective decarboxylative reactions

As a result of the low reactivity of simple esters, the use of them as nucleophiles in direct asymmetric transformations is a long-standing challenge in synthetic organic chemistry. Nature approaches this difficulty through a decarboxylative mechanism, which is used for polyketide synthesis. Inspired by nature, we report guanidine-catalyzed biomimetic decarboxylative C-C and C-N bond-formation reactions. These highly enantioselective decarboxylative Mannich and amination reactions utilized malonic acid half thioesters as simple ester surrogates. It is proposed that nucleophilic addition precedes decarboxylation in the mechanism, which has been investigated in detail through the identification of intermediates by using electrospray ionization (ESI) mass-spectrometric analysis and DFT calculations.