StePHOX, a new family of optically active, tunable phosphine–oxazoline ligands: syntheses and applications

Ultrasound-Accelerated, Concise, and Highly Efficient Synthesis of 2-Oxazoline Derivatives Using Heterogenous Calcium Ferrite Nanoparticles and Their DFT Studies

A rapid and operationally simple approach for synthesising biologically relevant 2-oxazoline derivatives has been developed through highly efficient ultrasound-promoted coupling reactions of thioamides and amino alcohols using calcium ferrite nanoparticles as heterogeneous catalysts. The major advantage of using ultrasound irradiation lies in the drastic reduction of reaction time as compared with conventional stirring. Furthermore, quantum chemical investigations for the synthesised 2-oxazoline derivatives have been carried out at the DFT/B3LYP/6-311 + G (d, p) level of theory to predict the optimized geometry. The molecular properties such as bond lengths, bond orders, Milliken charges, frontier molecular orbitals, global reactivity descriptors, molecular electrostatic potential map, and thermodynamic parameters of all the compounds have also been reported at the same level of theory.

Development of asymmetric deacylative allylation

Herein we present the development of asymmetric deacylative allylation of ketone enolates. The reaction directly couples readily available ketone pronucleophiles with allylic alcohols using facile retro-Claisen cleavage to form reactive intermediates in situ. The simplicity and robustness of the reaction conditions is demonstrated by the preparation of >6 g of an allylated tetralone from commercially available materials. Furthermore, use of nonracemic PHOX ligands allows intermolecular formation of quaternary stereocenters directly from allylic alcohols.

Enantioselective decarboxylative alkylation reactions: catalyst development, substrate scope, and mechanistic studies

α-Quaternary ketones are accessed through novel enantioselective alkylations of allyl and propargyl electrophiles by unstabilized prochiral enolate nucleophiles in the presence of palladium complexes with various phosphinooxazoline (PHOX) ligands. Excellent yields and high enantiomeric excesses are obtained from three classes of enolate precursor: enol carbonates, enol silanes, and racemic β-ketoesters. Each of these substrate classes functions with nearly identical efficiency in terms of yield and enantioselectivity. Catalyst discovery and development, the optimization of reaction conditions, the exploration of reaction scope, and applications in target-directed synthesis are reported. Experimental observations suggest that these alkylation reactions occur through an unusual inner-sphere mechanism involving binding of the prochiral enolate nucleophile directly to the palladium center.

Enantioselective and diastereoselective Tsuji-Trost allylic alkylation of lactones: an experimental and computational study

The Tsuji-Trost protocol has been successfully employed for the allylic alkylation of preformed lactone enolates. It has been demonstrated that this Pd-catalyzed reaction can be carried out in an enantio- and diastereoselective manner. The use of additives, such as LiCl, was found to be crucial for reaching high levels of product selectivity. For one particular pair of reactants, density functional theory was used to investigate the mechanism of the nucleophilic addition. Among the five pathways considered, the reaction between an (allyl)Pd(BINAP) complex and a LiCl-lithium enolate adduct is predicted to be the most likely route for C-C bond formation. LiCl plays a key role as the connecting link between the noble metal and the enolate in the kinetically favored transition state. The computed diastereoselectivity ratio is in good agreement with the experimentally observed value.