Utilization of Donor-Acceptor Interactions for the Catalytic Acceleration of Nucleophilic Additions to Aromatic Carbonyl Compounds

3D-Boronic Ester Architectures: Synthesis, Host-Guest Chemistry, Dynamic Behavior, and Supramolecular Catalysis

Boronic esters are known to be formed simply by mixing boronic acids and alcohols under neutral conditions, and the equilibrium is in favor of the boronic esters when 1,2- or 1,3-diols are employed as alcohols. By utilizing the dynamic nature of the boronic ester formation, our group successfully constructed unique boron-containing 3D structures, such as ring-shaped macrocycles, cages, and tubes, based on the boronic ester formation of various aromatic di-, tri-, or hexaboronic acids with an originally designed tetrol 1 containing two sets of fixed 1,2-diol units oriented on the same face of an indacene framework. Various functions of the obtained boronates were further pursued to disclose the characteristic features of this system. This personal account describes our self-assembled boronate system using tetrol 1 including synthesis, host-guest chemistry, kinetic connection, characteristic dynamic behaviors, and supramolecular catalysis.

Naphthobox: a selective molecular box for planar aromatic cations

A molecular box with an electron-rich cavity, namely naphthobox, was contructed and showed selective binding to planar aromatic cations.

Selective Activation of Aromatic Aldehydes Promoted by Dispersion Interactions: Steric and Electronic Factors of a π-Pocket within Cage-Shaped Borates for Molecular Recognition

Selective bond formations are one of the most important reactions in organic synthesis. In the Lewis acid mediated electrophile reactions of carbonyls, the selective formation of a carbonyl-acid complex plays a critical role in determining selectivity, which is based on the difference in the coordinative interaction between the carbonyl and Lewis acid center. Although this strategy has attained progress in selective bond formations, the discrimination between similarly sized aromatic and aliphatic carbonyls that have no functional anchors to strongly interact with the metal center still remains a challenging issue. Herein, this work focuses on molecular recognition driven by dispersion interactions within some aromatic moieties. A Lewis acid catalyst with a π-space cavity, which is referred to as a π-pocket, as the recognition site for aromatic carbonyls is designed. Cage-shaped borates 1B with various π-pockets demonstrated significant chemoselectivity for aromatic aldehydes 3 b-f over that of aliphatic 3 a in competitive hetero-Diels-Alder reactions. The effectiveness of our catalysts was also evidenced by intramolecular recognition of the aromatic carbonyl within a dicarbonyl substrate. Mechanistic and theoretical studies demonstrated that the selective activation of aromatic substrates was driven by the preorganization step with a larger dispersion interaction, rather than the rate-determining step of the C-C bond formation, and this was likely to contribute to the preferred activation of aromatic substrates over that of aliphatic ones.

Boronic, diboronic and boric acid esters of 1,8-naphthalenediol - synthesis, structure and formation of boronium salts

The 1,8-naphthalenediolate [1,8-O2C10H8] supported boronic and boric acid esters of general formula X-B(1,8-O2C10H8), where X = C6H5 (1a), C6F5 (2a), 3,4,5-F3-C6H2 (3a), 2,4,6-F3-C6H2 (4a), 2,6-F2-C6H3 (5a), 2,6-Cl2-C6H3 (6a), 2,4,6-Me3-C6H2 (7a), 2,6-(MeO)3-C6H3 (8a), Bun (9a), MeO (10a), OH (11a) and Cl (13a), were synthesized, NMR spectroscopically characterized, and the solid-state structures of 1a-5a, 8a and 10a determined by X-ray crystallography. The acceptor numbers of 1a-7a and 13a were determined and found to be similar to their catecholate analogues, R-Bcat, indicating similar Lewis acidities of these two classes of boronic acid esters. The reaction of B2(NMe2)4 with 1,8-naphthalenediol, followed by addition of HCl furnished the diboronic acid ester B2(1,8-O2C10H8)4 (16a) in ca. 70% yield. Cl-B(1,8-O2C10H8) (13a) was shown to react with O[double bond, length as m-dash]PEt3, DMAP, 1,10-phenanthroline and 2,2'-bipyridine, resp., to give the boronium salts [(Et3P[double bond, length as m-dash]O)2B(1,8-O2C10H8)]Cl (18a), [(DMAP)2B(1,8-O2C10H8)]Cl (22a), [(2,2'-bipyridine)B(1,8-O2C10H8)]Cl (23a) and [(1,10-phenanthroline)B(1,8-O2C10H8)]Cl (24a), which were characterized by NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography.

Supramolecular Photocatalysis by Utilizing the Host-Guest Charge-Transfer Interaction: Visible-Light-Induced Generation of Triplet Anthracenes for [4+2] Cycloaddition Reactions

Supramolecular photocatalysis via charge-transfer excitation of a host-guest complex was developed by use of the macrocyclic boronic ester [2+2]_BTH-F containing highly electron-deficient difluorobenzothiadiazole moieties. In the presence of a catalytic amount of [2+2]_BTH-F , the triplet excited state of anthracene was generated from the charge-transfer excited state of anthracene@[2+2]_BTH-F by visible-light irradiation, and cycloaddition of the excited anthracene with several dienes and alkenes proceeded in a [4+2] manner in high yields.

A K+-promoted Diels-Alder reaction by using a self-assembled macrocyclic boronic ester containing two crown ether moieties

A K+-promoted Diels-Alder reaction of 1,4,9,10-anthradiquinone with various dienes is achieved in the presence of a self-assembled macrocyclic boronic ester [2+2]crown containing two crown ether moieties. The reaction rate is remarkably accelerated (up to 206-fold) compared to that in the absence of the promoter. Furthermore, the reaction proceeds regioselectively to yield an internal adduct. The self-assembly protocol was also demonstrated.

Substituent effects in solid-state assembly of activated benzotriazoles

Aromatic donor–acceptor stacking involving electron-rich π-donors and electron-deficient π-acceptors has been utilized in a broad spectrum of diverse applications to great effect.