Phosphine Oxidation with Water and Ferrocenium(III) Cation Induced by Visible-Light Irradiation

Investigating the Origin of Epimerization Attenuation during Pd-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Reactions

Palladium-catalyzed cross-couplings remain among the most robust methodologies to form carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds. In particular, carbon-nitrogen (C-N) couplings (Buchwald-Hartwig aminations) find widespread use in fine chemicals industries. The use of base in these reactions is critical for catalyst activation and proton sequestration. Base selection also plays an important role in process design, as strongly basic conditions can impact sensitive stereocenters and result in erosion of stereochemical purity. Herein we investigate the role of a Pd catalyst in suppressing base-mediated epimerization of a sultam stereocenter during a C-N cross-coupling reaction to access the RORγ inhibitor GDC-0022. Online high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) was employed to acquire reaction time course profiles and to delineate epimerization behavior, identify decomposition pathways, and monitor Pd-containing species. Our ability to monitor organopalladium complexes in real time by HPLC-MS provided strong evidence that the degree of epimerization was correlated to the Pd speciation in solution. Specifically, Pd(II) complexes were associated with mitigating epimerization of six-membered sultams. Additional studies showed that the suppression of epimerization in the presence of Pd(II) can impact Pd-catalyzed reactions of other substrates such as enolizable ketones, thus providing practical insight on the execution and optimization of such processes.

Molecular Switch Cobalt Redox Shuttle with a Tunable Hexadentate Ligand

Strong-field hexadentate ligands were synthesized and coordinated to cobalt metal centers to result in three new low-spin to low-spin Co(III/II) redox couples. The ligand backbone has been modified with dimethyl amine groups to result in redox potential tuning of the Co(III/II) redox couples from -200 to -430 mV versus Fc^+/0. The redox couples surprisingly undergo a reversible molecular switch rearrangement from five-coordinate Co(II) to six-coordinate Co(III) despite the ligands being hexadentate. The complexes exhibit modestly faster electron self-exchange rate constants of 2.2-4.2 M^-1 s^-1 compared to the high-spin to low-spin redox couple [Co(bpy)₃]^3+/2+ at 0.27 M^-1 s^-1, which is attributed to the change in spin state being somewhat offset by this coordination switching behavior. The complexes were utilized as redox shuttles in dye-sensitized solar cells with the near-IR AP25 + D35 dye system and exhibited improved photocurrents over the [Co(bpy)₃]^3+/2+ redox shuttle (19.8 vs 18.0 mA/cm²). Future directions point toward pairing the low-spin to low-spin Co(II/III) tunable series to dyes with significantly more negative highest occupied molecular orbital potentials that absorb into the near-IR where outer sphere redox shuttles have failed to produce efficient dye regeneration.

(Et4N)[WIII(DAPBH)(CN)2], the first pentagonal-bipyramidal W(III) complex with unquenched orbital angular momentum: a novel Ising-type magnetic building block for single-molecule magnets

The first pentagonal-bipyramidal tungsten(III) complex (Et₄N)[W^III(DAPBH)(CN)₂] with a N₃O₂-type Schiff-base ligand and two apical cyanide groups was synthesized and characterized structurally and magnetically. The complex has a low-spin (S = 1/2) ground state and features unquenched orbital angular momentum M_L = ±1 causing very strong Ising-type magnetic anisotropy.

A molecular mediator for reductive concerted proton-electron transfers via electrocatalysis

Electrocatalytic approaches to the activation of unsaturated substrates via reductive concerted proton-electron transfer (CPET) must overcome competing, often kinetically dominant hydrogen evolution. We introduce the design of a molecular mediator for electrochemically triggered reductive CPET through the synthetic integration of a Brønsted acid and a redox mediator. Cathodic reduction at the cobaltocenium redox mediator substantially weakens the homolytic nitrogen-hydrogen bond strength of a Brønsted acidic anilinium tethered to one of the cyclopentadienyl rings. The electrochemically generated molecular mediator is demonstrated to transform a model substrate, acetophenone, to its corresponding neutral α-radical via a rate-determining CPET.