Transition-metal-free silylboronate-mediated cross-couplings of organic fluorides with amines

C-N bond cross-couplings are fundamental in the field of organic chemistry. Herein, silylboronate-mediated selective defluorinative cross-coupling of organic fluorides with secondary amines via a transition-metal-free strategy is disclosed. The cooperation of silylboronate and potassium tert-butoxide enables the room-temperature cross-coupling of C-F and N-H bonds, effectively avoiding the high barriers associated with thermally induced S_N2 or S_N1 amination. The significant advantage of this transformation is the selective activation of the C-F bond of the organic fluoride by silylboronate without affecting potentially cleavable C-O, C-Cl, heteroaryl C-H, or C-N bonds and CF₃ groups. Tertiary amines with aromatic, heteroaromatic, and/or aliphatic groups were efficiently synthesized in a single step using electronically and sterically varying organic fluorides and N-alkylanilines or secondary amines. The protocol is extended to the late-stage syntheses of drug candidates, including their deuterium-labeled analogs.

Tetrabutylammonium Bromide-Promoted Metal-Free, Efficient, Rapid, and Scalable Synthesis of N-Aryl Amines

A rapid, transition metal-free, high-yielding, tetrabutylammonium bromide-promoted method of N-arylation is reported within. The optimized conditions tolerated a wide range of secondary amines and was equally effective with bromo- and chlorobenzene-including substituted aryl halides. The developed method is found to be effective for N-arylation when compared to earlier methods which involve harsh conditions, transition metals, lack of scalability, and long reaction times. Our method utilizes conventional heating only; it is readily scalable; and the products are facile to purify.

Electron-Catalyzed Coupling of Magnesium Amides with Aryl Iodides

An electron was found to catalyze the coupling of magnesium diarylamides with aryl iodides giving triarylamines through a radical-anion intermediate. The transformation requires no transition metal catalysts or additives, and a wide array of products are formed in good-to-excellent yields.

Synthesis of quinazolines from 2-aminobenzylamines with benzylamines and N-substituted benzylamines under transition metal-free conditions

This work reports the synthesis of quinazolines from 2-aminobenzylamines with N-substituted benzylamines in the presence of molecular iodine. The developed methodology works smoothly under transition-metal free, additive free and solvent free conditions and the use of O₂ as a green oxidant makes it a greatly economical.

Base-mediated regiospecific cascade synthesis of N-(2-pyridyl)pyrroles from N-propargylic β-enaminones

Two birds with one stone: two classical heterocycles, pyrrole and pyridine, were simultaneously installed from one acyclic enaminone precursor for the preparation of N-(2-pyridyl)pyrroles.

Transition-metal free synthesis of quinazolinones via tandem cyclization of 2-halobenzoic acids with amidines

A simple protocol for the synthesis of quinazoline-4(3H)-ones by tandem cyclization of 2-halobenzoic acids with amidines has been developed by using KOH as a base in DMSO at 120 °C.

Synthesis of 1,4-dihydroquinoline derivatives under transition-metal-free conditions and their diverse applications

A transition-metal-free process for the synthesis of 1,4-dihydroquinoline derivatives starting from simple enaminones with aldehydes via intermolecular cascade cyclization in a one-pot protocol is developed. This methodology affords a variety of products in moderate to good yields. Particularly, the use of the enaminone fragment in 1,4-dihydroquinoline derivatives 3 as a leaving group for further diverse applications with C-nucleophiles is proved to be feasible.

Internal and external stereoisomers of squaraine rotaxane endoperoxide: synthesis, chemical differences, and structural revision

Photooxygenation of permanently interlocked squaraine rotaxanes with anthracene-containing macrocycles produces the corresponding squaraine rotaxane endoperoxides (SREPs) quantitatively. SREPs are stored at low temperature, and upon warming, they undergo clean cycloreversion, releasing singlet oxygen and emitting light. The structural elucidation in 2010 assigned the structure as the SREP-int stereoisomer, with the endoperoxide unit directed inside the macrocycle cavity. New experimental and computational evidence reported here proves that the initial, kinetic photooxygenation product is the less stable SREP-ext stereoisomer with the endoperoxide unit directed outside the macrocycle. The photophysical properties and subsequent reactivity of mechanically strained SREP-ext depend on the size of the end groups of the encapsulated squaraine dye. If the end groups are sufficiently large to prevent dissociation of the interlocked components, the strained SREP-ext stereoisomer undergoes clean thermal cycloreversion. However, smaller squaraine end groups allow transient dissociation, resulting in a pseudorotaxane dissociation/association process that produces SREP-int as the thermodynamic stereoisomer that does not cyclorevert. The large difference in endoperoxide reactivity for the two SREP stereoisomers illustrates the power of the mechanical bond to induce cross-component steric strain and selective enhancement of a specific reaction pathway. The new insight enabled synthetic development of triptycene-containing squaraine rotaxanes with high fluorescence quantum yields and large Stokes shifts.

Quinoline-derived two-photon sensitive quadrupolar probes

Quadrupolar 8-dimethylaminoquinoline-derived photosensitive probes underwent photolysis under UV (365 nm) and NIR (730 nm two-photon (TP)) irradiation conditions.

Transition-metal-free synthesis of benzimidazoles mediated by KOH/DMSO

Benzimidazoles are prepared by intramolecular N-arylations of amidines mediated by potassium hydroxide in DMSO at 120 °C. In this manner, diversely substituted products have been obtained in moderate to very good yields.