Manganese-Catalyzed Chemoselective Coupling of Secondary Alcohols, Primary Alcohols and Methanol

Herein, we report a manganese-catalyzed three-component coupling of secondary alcohols, primary alcohols and methanol for the synthesis of β,β-methylated/alkylated secondary alcohols. Using our method, a series of 1-arylethanol, benzyl alcohol derivatives, and methanol undergo sequential coupling efficiently to construct assembled alcohols with high chemoselectivity in moderate to good yields. Mechanistic studies suggest that the reaction proceeds via methylation of a benzylated secondary alcohol intermediate to generate the final product.

Economical Access to Diverse Enantiopure Tetrahydropyridines and Piperidines Enabled by Catalytic Borrowing Hydrogen

We disclose herein a catalytic borrowing hydrogen method that enables an unprecedented, economical one-pot access to enantiopure tetrahydropyridines with minimal reagent use or waste formation. This method couples a few classes of readily available substrates with commercially available 1,3-amino alcohols, and delivers the valuable tetrahydropyridines of different substitution patterns free of N-protection. Such transformations are highly challenging to achieve, as multiple redox steps need to be realized in a cascade and numerous side reactions including a facile aromatization have to be overcome. Highly diastereoselective functionalizations of tetrahydropyridines also result in a general access to enantiopure di- and tri-substituted piperidines, which ranks the topmost frequent N-heterocycle in commercial drugs.

Selective C-alkylation Between Alcohols Catalyzed by N-Heterocyclic Carbene Molybdenum

The first implementation of a molybdenum complex with an easily accessible bis-N-heterocyclic carbene ligand to catalyze β-alkylation of secondary alcohols via borrowing-hydrogen (BH) strategy using alcohols as alkylating agents is reported. Remarkably high activity, excellent selectivity, and broad substrate scope compatibility with advantages of catalyst usage low to 0.5 mol%, a catalytic amount of NaOH as the base, and H₂ O as the by-product are demonstrated in this green and step-economical protocol. Mechanistic studies indicate a plausible outer-sphere mechanism in which the alcohol dehydrogenation is the rate-determining step.

Simultaneous Kinetic Resolution and Asymmetric Induction within a Borrowing Hydrogen Cascade Mediated by a Single Catalyst

The mechanistic uniqueness and versatility of borrowing hydrogen catalysis provides an opportunity to investigate the controllability of a cascade reaction, and more importantly, to realize either one or both of chiral recognition and chiral induction simultaneously. Here we report that, in a borrowing hydrogen cascade starting from racemic allylic alcohols, one of the enantiomers could be kinetically resolved, while the other enantiomer could be purposely converted to various targeted products, including α,β-unsaturated ketones, β-functionalized ketones and γ-functionalized alcohols. By employing a robust Ru-catalyst, both kinetic resolution and asymmetric induction were achieved with remarkable levels of efficiency and enantioselectivity. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest that corresponding catalyst-substrate π-π interactions are pivotal to realize the observed stereochemical diversity.

First-Row Transition-Metal Catalyzed Acceptorless Dehydrogenation and Related Reactions: A Personal Account

The development of sustainable catalytic protocols that circumvent the use of expensive and precious metal catalysts and avoid toxic reagents plays a crucial role in organic synthesis. Indeed, the direct employment of simple and abundantly available feedstock chemicals as the starting materials broadens their synthetic application in contemporary research. In particular, the transition metal-catalyzed diversification of alcohols with various nucleophilic partners to construct a wide range of building blocks is a powerful and highly desirable methodology. Moreover, the replacement of precious metal catalysts by non-precious and less toxic metals for selective transformations is one of the main goals and has been paid significant attention to in modern chemistry. In view of this, the first-row transition metal catalysts find extensive applications in various synthetic transformations such as catalytic hydrogenation, dehydrogenation, and related reactions. Herein, we have disclosed our recent developments on the base-metal catalysis such as Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni for the acceptorless dehydrogenation reactions and its application in the C-C and C-N bond formation via hydrogen auto-transfer (HA) and acceptorless dehydrogenation coupling (ADC) reactions. These HA/ADC protocols employ alcohol as alkylating agents and eliminate water and/or hydrogen gas as by-products, representing highly atom-efficient and environmentally benign reactions. Furthermore, diverse simple to complex organic molecules synthesis by C-C and C-N bond formation using feedstock alcohols are also overviewed. Overall, this account deals with the contribution and development of efficient and novel homogeneous as well as heterogeneous base-metal catalysts for sustainable chemical synthesis.

Catalytic Diastereo- and Enantioconvergent Synthesis of Vicinal Diamines from Diols through Borrowing Hydrogen

We present herein an unprecedented diastereoconvergent synthesis of vicinal diamines from diols through an economical, redox-neutral process. Under cooperative ruthenium and Lewis acid catalysis, readily available anilines and 1,2-diols (as a mixture of diastereomers) couple to forge two C-N bonds in an efficient and diastereoselective fashion. By identifying an effective chiral iridium/phosphoric acid co-catalyzed procedure, the first enantioconvergent double amination of racemic 1,2-diols has also been achieved, resulting in a practical access to highly valuable enantioenriched vicinal diamines.

Tandem Catalytic Indolization/Enantioconvergent Substitution of Alcohols by Borrowing Hydrogen to Access Tricyclic Indoles

An efficient tandem catalysis method is achieved for the direct conversion of alcohol-containing alkynyl anilines to valuable chiral 2,3-fused tricyclic indoles. This method relies on a tandem indolization followed by enantioconvergent substitution of alcohols via borrowing hydrogen to construct two rings in one step, enabled by relay and cooperative catalysis of a chiral iridium complex with a chiral phosphoric acid. Highly diastereoselective transformations of the tricyclic indole products also provide efficient access to a diverse array of complex polycyclic indoline compounds.

Ethanol: Unlocking an Abundant Renewable C2 -Feedstock for Catalytic Enantioselective C-C Coupling

With annual production at >85 million tons/year, ethanol is the world's largest-volume renewable small molecule carbon source, yet its use as a C2 -feedstock in enantioselective C-C coupling is unknown. Here, the first catalytic enantioselective C-C couplings of ethanol are demonstrated in reactions with structurally complex, nitrogen-rich allylic acetates incorporating the top 10 N-heterocycles found in FDA-approved drugs.

Selective and Scalable Synthesis of Sugar Alcohols by Homogeneous Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Unprotected Ketoses

Sugar alcohols are of great importance for the food industry and are promising building blocks for bio-based polymers. Industrially, they are produced by heterogeneous hydrogenation of sugars with H₂ , usually with none to low stereoselectivities. Now, we present a homogeneous system based on commercially available components, which not only increases the overall yield, but also allows a wide range of unprotected ketoses to be diastereoselectively hydrogenated. Furthermore, the system is reliable on a multi-gram scale allowing sugar alcohols to be isolated in large quantities at high atom economy.