Palladium-catalyzed one-pot synthesis of polysubstituted furans from alkynoates and 2-yn-1-ols

NHC-Catalyzed [2 + 4] Annulation of Alkynyl Ester with Chalcone

An NHC-catalyzed [2 + 4] cyclization of alkynyl ester with α,β-unsaturated ketone to form a pyran scaffold was developed successfully. The cheap and easily available starting materials, mild reaction conditions, moderate to excellent yields, and high atom economy make this strategy attractive for the syntheses of highly substituted 4H-pyran derivatives.

Alkynoates as Versatile and Powerful Chemical Tools for the Rapid Assembly of Diverse Heterocycles under Transition-Metal Catalysis: Recent Developments and Challenges

Heterocycles, heteroaromatics and spirocyclic entities are ubiquitous components of a wide plethora of synthetic drugs, biologically active natural products, marketed pharmaceuticals and agrochemical targets. Recognizing their high proportion in drugs and rich pharmacological potential, these invaluable structural motifs have garnered significant interest, thus enabling the development of efficient catalytic methodologies providing access to architecturally complex and diverse molecules with high atom-economy and low cost. These chemical processes not only allow the formation of diverse heterocycles but also utilize a range of flexible and easily accessible building units in a single operation to discover diversity-oriented synthetic approaches. Alkynoates are significantly important, diverse and powerful building blocks in organic chemistry due to their unique and inherent properties such as the electronic bias on carbon-carbon triple bonds posed by electron-withdrawing groups or the metallic coordination site provided by carbonyl groups. The present review highlights the comprehensive picture of the utility of alkynoates (2007-2019) for the synthesis of various heterocycles (> 50 types) using transition-metal catalysts (Ru, Rh, Pd, Ir, Ag, Au, Pt, Cu, Mn, Fe) in various forms. The valuable function of versatile alkynoates (bearing multifunctional groups) as simple and useful starting materials is explored, thus cyclizing with an array of coupling partners to deliver a broad range of oxygen-, nitrogen-, sulfur-containing heterocycles alongside fused-, and spiro-heterocyclic compounds. In addition, these examples will also focus the scope and reaction limitations, as well as mechanistic investigations into the synthesis of these heterocycles. The biological significance will also be discussed, citing relevant examples of drug molecules highlighting each class of heterocycles. This review summarizes the recent developments in the synthetic methods for the synthesis of various heterocycles using alkynoates as readily available starting materials under transition-metal catalysis.

DABCO-catalyzed synthesis of trifluoromethylated furans from propargyl alcohols and methyl 2-perfluoroalkynoate

The DABCO-catalyzed reaction of propargyl alcohols with methyl 2-perfluoroalkynoate to give trifluoromethylated furans in up to 98% yield under mild conditions has been developed. The established allene-enol and control experiments indicate that the reaction should proceed through a Michael addition and Claisen rearrangement/cyclization process.

Metal-catalyzed cascade rearrangements of 3-alkynyl flavone ethers

Metal-mediated rearrangements of 3-alkynyl flavone ethers are reported. The overall process involves 5-endo enyne cyclization to a platinum-containing spiro-oxocarbenium intermediate which may be trapped with methanol to produce spirodihydrofurans or further rearranged to afford either allenyl chromanediones or benzofuranones.

Palladium-catalyzed oxidation of unsaturated hydrocarbons using molecular oxygen

Oxidation reactions are central components of organic chemistry, and modern organic synthesis increasingly requires selective and mild oxidation methods. Although researchers have developed new organic oxidation methods in recent years, the chemistry community faces continuing challenges to use "green" reagents and maximize atom economy. Undoubtedly, with its low cost and lack of environmentally hazardous byproducts, molecular oxygen (O(2)) is an ideal oxidant. However, relatively limited methodologies are available that use O(2) efficiently in selective organic transformations. Recently, the use of metal catalysts coupled with the reduction of O(2) has become an attractive approach for aerobic oxidation. In particular, Pd complexes have shown great potential for the development of versatile aerobic reactions because of their ability to directly couple O(2) reduction. As a result, these complexes have attracted tremendous research attention and afford new opportunities for selective oxidation chemistry. In this Account we highlight some of our progress toward the synthetic goal to functionalize the unsaturated hydrocarbons largely through the appropriate choice of Pd catalysts and O(2). We have focused on developing simple and efficient methods to construct new carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds with O(2) as the oxidant and/or reactant. We have demonstrated Pd-catalyzed oxidation of carbon-carbon double bonds, Pd-catalyzed oxidation of carbon-carbon triple bonds, and Pd-catalyzed oxidative cross-coupling reactions of alkenes and/or alkynes with high selectivity. O(2) plays a critical role in the success of these transformations. Most of the reactions can tolerate a range of functional groups, and some can occur under aqueous conditions. Depending on the specific process, we propose several mechanistic scenarios that describe the in situ generation of different intermediates and discuss the plausible reaction pathways. These methods provide new strategies for the green synthesis of diverse 1,2-diols, carbonyls, lactones, conjugated dienes, trienes, and aromatic rings. These products have potential applications in natural product synthesis, materials science, and bioorganic chemistry. Given our new mechanistic understanding, we are optimistic that additional Pd-catalyzed aerobic oxidative transformations will be developed that are both more economical and environmentally friendly.