A boron-based Ireland-Claisen approach to the synthesis of pordamacrine A

Copper-Catalyzed Reductive Ireland-Claisen Rearrangements of Propargylic Acrylates and Allylic Allenoates

The copper-catalyzed reductive Ireland-Claisen rearrangement of propargylic acrylates led to 3,4-allenoic acids. The use of silanes or pinacolborane as stoichiometric reducing agents and triethylphosphite as a ligand facilitated the divergent and complementary selectivity for the synthesis of diastereomeric anti- and syn-rearranged products, respectively. Copper-catalyzed reductive Ireland-Claisen rearrangement of allylic 2,3-allenoates proceeded effectively only when pinacolborane was used as a reductant to generate various 1,5-dienes in excellent yields and with good diastereoselectivities in some cases. Mechanistic studies showed that the silyl and boron enolates, rather than the copper enolate, underwent a stereospecific rearrangement via a chairlike transition state to afford the corresponding Claisen rearrangement products.

A 1,3,2-Diazaphospholene-Catalyzed Reductive Claisen Rearrangement

1,3,2-Diazaphospholenes (DAPs) are an emerging class of organic hydrides. In this work, we exploited them as efficient catalysts for very mild reductive Claisen rearrangements. The method is tolerant towards a wide variety of functional groups and operates at ambient temperature. Besides being enantiospecific for substrates with existing stereogenic centers, the diastereoselectivity can be switched by varying solvents and DAP catalysts. The reaction kinetics show direct rearrangements of O-bound phospholene enolates and provide a proof-of-principle for catalytic enantioselective reactions.