Advances in Microwave-Assisted Combinatorial Chemistry Without Polymer-Supported Reagents

Microwave-assisted synthesis using ionic liquids

The research and application of green chemistry principles have led to the development of cleaner processes. In this sense, during the present century an ever-growing number of studies have been published describing the use of ionic liquids (ILs) as solvents, catalysts, or templates to develop more environmentally friendly and efficient chemical transformations for their use in both academia and industry. The conjugation of ILs and microwave irradiation as a non-conventional heating source has shown evident advantages when compared to conventional synthetic procedures for the generation of fast, efficient, and environmental friendly synthetic methodologies. This review focuses on the advances in the use of ILs in organic, polymers and materials syntheses under MW irradiation conditions.

Traceless Liquid-Phase Synthesis of Biphenyls and Terphenyls Using Pentaerythritol as a Tetrapodal Soluble Support

Application of a novel sulfonate-based traceless multifunctional linker system using pentaerythritol as a tetrapodal soluble support was demonstrated using liquid-phase parallel and combinatorial preparation of biphenyl and terphenyl compounds. Nickel-catalyzed reactions of pentaerythritol tetrakis(arenesulfonate)s with arylmagnesium bromides generated the desired products in sufficient yields through reductive cleavage/cross-coupling of the C-S bond. Homogeneous pentaerythritol-supported reactions could be accomplished using less nucleophile with shorter reaction periods than could the corresponding heterogeneous polymer-supported reactions. This liquid-phase approach using a small polyfunctionalized support combines advantages of solution-phase and solid-phase syntheses by allowing high reactivity, high atom economy, simple isolation, and real-time monitoring of the reaction progress.