Redox induced radical and radical ionic carbon-carbon bond forming reactions

Enantioselective Cyanofunctionalization of Aromatic Alkenes via Radical Anions

Alkene radical ions constitute an integral and unique class of reactive intermediates for the synthesis of valuable compounds because they have both unpaired spins and charge. However, relatively few synthetic applications of alkene radical anions have emerged due to a dearth of generally applicable and mild radical anion generation approaches. Precise control over the chemo- and stereoselectivity in alkene radical anion-mediated processes represents another long-standing challenge due to their high reactivity. To overcome these issues, here, we develop a new redox-neutral strategy that seamlessly merges photoredox and copper catalysis to enable the controlled generation of alkene radical anions and their orthogonal enantioselective cyanofunctionalization via distonic-like species. This new strategy enables highly regio-, chemo-, and enantioselective hydrocyanation, deuterocyanation, and cyanocarboxylation of alkenes without stoichiometric reductants or oxidants under visible light irradiation. This protocol provides a new blueprint for the exploration of the transformation potential of alkene radical anions.

Visible-light-induced reactions of methylenecyclopropanes (MCPs)

Diverse, visible-light-induced transformations of methylenecyclopropanes (MCPs) have been reported in recent years, attracting significant attention from synthetic chemists. As readily accessible strained molecules, MCPs have sufficient reactivity to selectively generate different target products, through reactions with various radical species upon visible-light irradiation under regulated reaction conditions. These transformations can be classified into three subcategories of reaction pathway, forming ring-opened products, cyclopropane derivatives, and alkynes. These products include pharmaceutical intermediates and polycyclic/heterocyclic compounds that are challenging to obtain using traditional methods. This review summarizes the recent advancements in this field.

Hybrid Reaction Systems for the Synthesis of Alkylated Compounds Based upon Cu-Catalyzed Coupling of Radicals and Organometallic Species

A transition metal catalyzed alkylation with an alkyl halide is one of the most difficult reactions to achieve, because of the difficult oxidative addition of an alkyl-halogen bond to a metal, and the tendency of the resulting alkylmetal intermediate to undergo a β-hydride elimination reaction to give an olefin. In this review, we discuss hybrid reaction systems involving Cu catalyzed combination of radicals and organometallic species, which enable facile alkylation reactions to construct C-C and C-heteroatom bonds. This paper highlights recent progress in arylation, alkenylation, alkynylation, cyclization, addition and introduction of heteroatoms via these hybrid reaction systems.

Redox-Tag Processes: Intramolecular Electron Transfer and Its Broad Relationship to Redox Reactions in General

Explosive growth in the use of open shell reactivity, including neutral radicals and radical ions, in the field of synthetic organic chemistry has been observed in the past decade, particularly since the advent of ruthenium complexes in 2008. These complexes generally induce single-electron transfer (SET) processes via visible-light absorption. Additionally, recent significant advancements in organic electrochemistry involving SET processes to provide open shell reactivity offer a complementary method to traditional polarity-driven reactions described by two-electron transfer processes. In this Review, we highlight the importance of intramolecular SET processes in the field of synthetic organic chemistry, which seem to be more elusive than the intermolecular versions, since they are net redox-neutral and thus cannot simply be regarded as oxidations or reductions. Such intramolecular SET processes can rationally be understood in combination with concomitant bond formations and/or cleavages, and are regulated by a structural motif that we call a "redox tag." In order to describe modern radical-driven reactions involving SET processes, we focus on a classical formalism in which electrons are treated as particles rather than waves, which offers a practical yet powerful approach to explain and/or predict synthetic outcomes.

Solar synthesis: prospects in visible light photocatalysis

Chemists have long aspired to synthesize molecules the way that plants do-using sunlight to facilitate the construction of complex molecular architectures. Nevertheless, the use of visible light in photochemical synthesis is fundamentally challenging because organic molecules tend not to interact with the wavelengths of visible light that are most strongly emitted in the solar spectrum. Recent research has begun to leverage the ability of visible light-absorbing transition metal complexes to catalyze a broad range of synthetically valuable reactions. In this review, we highlight how an understanding of the mechanisms of photocatalytic activation available to these transition metal complexes, and of the general reactivity patterns of the intermediates accessible via visible light photocatalysis, has accelerated the development of this diverse suite of reactions.

The scalable pinacol coupling reaction utilizing the inorganic electride [Ca2N]+·e− as an electron donor

An inorganic electride [Ca₂N]⁺·e⁻ is used as an efficient electron donor for the scalable pinacol coupling reaction with a high yield.

Visible Light Photocatalysis: The Development of Photocatalytic Radical Ion Cycloadditions

Photochemistry has the potential to significantly impact multiple aspects of chemical synthesis, in part because photoinduced reactions can be used to construct molecular architectures that would otherwise be difficult to produce. Nevertheless, organic chemists have been slow to embrace photochemical synthesis because of technical complications associated with the use of ultraviolet light. Our laboratory has been part of an effort to design synthetically useful reactions that utilize visible light. This strategy enables the synthesis of a diverse range of organic structures by generation of a variety of reactive intermediates under exceptionally mild conditions. This Perspective article describes the reasoning that led to the conception of our first experiments in this area, the features of our reaction design that have been most powerful in the discovery of new processes, and a few of the possible future areas in which visible light photocatalysis might have a large impact.

Photocatalytic Reductive Cyclizations of Enones: Divergent Reactivity of Photogenerated Radical and Radical Anion Intermediates

Photocatalytic reactions of enones using metal polypyridyl complexes proceed by very different reaction manifolds in the presence of either Lewis or Brønsted acid additives. Previous work from our lab demonstrated that photocatalytic [2+2] cycloadditions of enones required the presence of a Lewis acidic co-catalyst, presumably to activate the enone and stabilize the key radical anion intermediate. On the other hand, Brønsted acid activators alter this reactivity and instead promote reductive cyclization reactions of a variety of aryl and aliphatic enones via a neutral radical intermediate. These two distinct reactive intermediates give rise to transformations differing in the connectivity, stereochemistry, and oxidation state of their products. In addition, this reductive coupling method introduces a novel approach to the tin-free generation of β-ketoradicals that react with high diastereoselectivity and with the high functional group compatibility typical of radical cyclization reactions.

Highly diastereoselective ionic/radical domino reactions: single electron transfer induced cyclization of bis-sulfoxides

SET oxidation of bis-sulfinyl anions has enabled the uses of bis-sulfinyl radical as a synthetic equivalent of chiral acyl and methylene radicals involved in tandem reactions leading to the enantioselective construction of various carbo- and heterocyclic derivatives.

Efficient Oxidative Radical Cyclizations of Ester Enolates with Carbocation Desilylation as Termination: Synthesis of Cyclopentanoid Monoterpenes and Analogues

[reaction: see text] An efficient oxidative radical cyclization approach for the synthesis of 2-alkenyl cyclopentane or cyclohexane carboxylates from omega-silylallyl ester enolates induced by recyclable SET oxidant ferrocenium hexafluorophosphate has been developed. A new tandem alkoxycarbonylation/oxidative radical cyclization/cationic termination process forms the basis for a five-step synthesis of the cyclopentanoid monoterpene dihydronepetalactone and analogues.