Hydroxide ion as electron source for photochemical Birch-type reduction and photodehalogenation

Chemoselective Quinoline and Isoquinoline Reduction by Energy Transfer Catalysis Enabled Hydrogen Atom Transfer

(Hetero)arene reduction is one of the key avenues for synthesizing related cyclic alkenes and alkanes. While catalytic hydrogenation and Birch reduction are the two broadly utilized approaches for (hetero)arene reduction across academia and industry over the last century, both methods have encountered significant chemoselectivity challenges. We hereby introduce a highly chemoselective quinoline and isoquinoline reduction protocol operating through selective energy transfer (EnT) catalysis, which enables subsequent hydrogen atom transfer (HAT). The design of this protocol bypasses the conventional metric of reduction reaction, that is, the reductive potential, and instead relies on the triplet energies of the chemical moieties and the kinetic barriers of energy and hydrogen atom transfer events. Many reducing labile functional groups, which were incompatible with previous (hetero)arene reduction reactions, are retained in this reaction. We anticipate that this protocol will trigger the further advancement of chemoselective arene reduction and enable the current arene-rich drug space to escape from flatland.

Photoredox catalysis harvesting multiple photon or electrochemical energies

Photoredox catalysis (PRC) is a cutting-edge frontier for single electron-transfer (SET) reactions, enabling the generation of reactive intermediates for both oxidative and reductive processes via photon activation of a catalyst. Although this represents a significant step towards chemoselective and, more generally, sustainable chemistry, its efficacy is limited by the energy of visible light photons. Nowadays, excellent alternative conditions are available to overcome these limitations, harvesting two different but correlated concepts: the use of multi-photon processes such as consecutive photoinduced electron transfer (conPET) and the combination of photo- and electrochemistry in synthetic photoelectrochemistry (PEC). Herein, we review the most recent contributions to these fields in both oxidative and reductive activations of organic functional groups. New opportunities for organic chemists are captured, such as selective reactions employing super-oxidants and super-reductants to engage unactivated chemical feedstocks, and scalability up to gram scales in continuous flow. This review provides comparisons between the two techniques (multi-photon photoredox catalysis and PEC) to help the reader to fully understand their similarities, differences and potential applications and to therefore choose which method is the most appropriate for a given reaction, scale and purpose of a project.

A Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer Strategy to the Redox-Neutral Photocatalytic CO2 Fixation

Herein, we report our study on the design and development of a novel photocarboxylation method. We have used an organic photoredox catalyst (PC, 4CzIPN) and differently substituted dihydropyridines (DHPs) in combination with an organic base (1,5,7-triazabicyclodec-5-ene, TBD) to access a proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) based manifold. In depth mechanistic investigations merging experimental analysis (NMR, IR, cyclic voltammetry) and density-functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal the key activity of a H-bonding complex between the DHP and the base. The thermodynamic and kinetic benefits of the PCET mechanism allowed the implementation of a redox-neutral fixation process leading to synthetically relevant carboxylic acids (18 examples with isolated yields up to 75%) under very mild reaction conditions. Finally, diverse product manipulations were performed to demonstrate the synthetic versatility of the obtained products.

Uncanonical Semireduction of Quinolines and Isoquinolines via Regioselective HAT-Promoted Hydrosilylation

Heterocycles are the backbone of modern medical chemistry and drug development. The derivatization of "an olefin" inside aromatic rings represents an ideal approach to access functionalized saturated heterocycles from abundant aromatic building blocks. Here, we report an operationally simple, efficient, and practical method to selectively access hydrosilylated and reduced N-heterocycles from bicyclic aromatics via a key diradical intermediate. This approach is expected to facilitate complex heterocycle functionalizations that enable access to novel medicinally relevant scaffolds.

Scalable Birch reduction with lithium and ethylenediamine in tetrahydrofuran

[Figure: see text].

Organocatalyzed Birch Reduction Driven by Visible Light

The Birch reduction is a powerful synthetic methodology that uses solvated electrons to convert inert arenes to 1,4-cyclohexadienes-valuable intermediates for building molecular complexity. Birch reductions traditionally employ alkali metals dissolved in ammonia to produce a solvated electron for the reduction of unactivated arenes such as benzene (E_red < -3.42 V vs SCE). Photoredox catalysts have been gaining popularity in highly reducing applications, but none have been reported to demonstrate reduction potentials powerful enough to reduce benzene. Here, we introduce benzo[ghi]perylene imides as new organic photoredox catalysts for Birch reductions performed at ambient temperature and driven by visible light from commercially available LEDs. Using low catalyst loadings (<1 mol percent), benzene and other functionalized arenes were selectively transformed to 1,4-cyclohexadienes in moderate to good yields in a completely metal-free reaction. Mechanistic studies support that this unprecedented visible-light-induced reactivity is enabled by the ability of the organic photoredox catalyst to harness the energy from two visible-light photons to affect a single, high-energy chemical transformation.

Birch-Type Photoreduction of Arenes and Heteroarenes by Sensitized Electron Transfer

The direct reduction of arenes and heteroarenes by visible-light irradiation remains challenging, as the energy of a single photon is not sufficient for breaking aromatic stabilization. Shown herein is that the energy accumulation of two visible-light photons allows the dearomatization of arenes and heteroarenes. Mechanistic investigations confirm that the combination of energy-transfer and electron-transfer processes generates an arene radical anion, which is subsequently trapped by hydrogen-atom transfer and finally protonated to form the dearomatized product. The photoreduction converts planar aromatic feedstock compounds into molecular skeletons that are of use in organic synthesis.

Electron transfer-induced reduction of organic halides with amines

Reduction of a variety of organo halides was examined by using amines as a sacrificial hydrogen source. UV light-induced reduction of vinyl and aryl halides with triethylamine proceeded smoothly to give the corresponding reduced products. High temperature heating also caused the reduction and DABCO (1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane) also served as a good reducing reagent.

The photochemical alkylation and reduction of heteroarenes

The functionalization of heteroarenes has been integral to the structural diversification of medicinally active molecules such as quinolines, pyridines, and phenanthridines. Electron-deficient heteroarenes are electronically compatible to react with relatively nucleophilic free radicals such as hydroxyalkyl. However, the radical functionalization of such heteroarenes has been marked by the use of transition-metal catalyzed processes that require initiators and stoichiometric oxidants. Herein, we describe the photochemical alkylation of quinolines, pyridines and phenanthridines, where through direct excitation of the protonated heterocycle, alcohols and ethers, such as methanol and THF, can serve as alkylating agents. We also report the discovery of a photochemical reduction of these heteroarenes using only iPrOH and HCl. Mechanistic studies to elucidate the underlying mechanism of these transformations, and preliminary results on catalytic methylations are also reported.

Effect of methoxyl groups on the NMR spectra: configuration and conformation of natural and synthetic indanic and tetralinic structures

Here, we studied the influence of the methoxyl groups attached at C-7 and C-2' of natural and synthetic 1-arylindanes on the chemical shift of the signal of bibenzylic hydrogen and carbon atoms and J_1,2 coupling constants. This influence was also analysed in natural 1-aryltetralins and related compounds that possess methoxyl and/or hydroxyl groups bound at C-8 and C-2'. The methoxyl groups attached at C-7 in indanes or at C-8 in tetralins produce a deshielding signal at H-1 and shield at C-1 and a strong decrease in the value of J_1,2 due to the pseudoequatorial location adopted by the aryl group bound at C-1, avoiding an 'A^1,3 strain'. Furthermore, compounds with hydroxyl or methoxyl groups in C-2', in the absence of substituents of C-7 or C-8, present a strong deshielding signal at H-1, strong shield of the C-1 signal and a decrease in the value of J_1,2 . This is attributed to the stereoelectronic effects of the methoxyl or hydroxyl groups, which we have called 'Asarone effect'. NOESY experiments were conducted to confirm the configuration and conformation of some of the compounds included in this work. This study shows that both effects, A^1,3 strain and Asarone effect, must be taken into account when the structure of natural indanes and tetralins is analysed by using ¹ H-NMR and ¹³ C-NMR spectra. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Verification of the Major Metabolic Oxidation Path for the Naphthoyl Group in Chemoattractant Receptor-Homologous Molecule Expressed on Th2 Cells (CRTh2) Antagonist 2-(2-(1-Naphthoyl)-8-fluoro-3,4-dihydro-1H-pyrido[4,3-b]indol-5(2H)-yl)acetic Acid (Setipiprant/ACT-129968)

Various racemic and enantioenriched (trans)-X,Y-dihydroxy-X,Y-dihydronaphthoyl analogues as well as X-hydroxy-naphthoyl analogues of CRTh2 antagonist 2-(2-(1-naphthoyl)-8-fluoro-3,4-dihydro-1H-pyrido[4,3-b]indol-5(2H)-yl)acetic acid (1, Setipiprant/ACT-129968) were synthesized in order to gain insight into regio- and enantioselectivity of the metabolic oxidation of 1 and to verify the structures of four metabolites that were proposed earlier in a clinical ADME study. Analytical data of the synthetic standards were compared with data from samples of biological origin. The two major metabolites M7 and M9 were unambiguously verified as 2-(2-((trans)-3,4-dihydroxy-3,4-dihydronaphthalene-1-carbonyl)- and 2-(2-((trans)-5,6-dihydroxy-5,6-dihydronaphthalene-1-carbonyl)-8-fluoro-3,4-dihydro-1H-pyrido[4,3-b]indol-5(2H)-yl)acetic acid, respectively, each composed of two enantiomers with 68% and 44% ee in favor of (+)-(3S,4S)-M7 and (+)-(5S,6S)-M9, respectively. Likewise, minor metabolites M3 and M13 were identified as 2-(8-fluoro-2-(5-hydroxy-1-naphthoyl)- and 2-(8-fluoro-2-(4-hydroxy-1-naphthoyl)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-5H-pyrido[4,3-b]indol-5-yl)acetic acid, respectively.

Cs2CO3-promoted carboxylation of N-tosylhydrazones with carbon dioxide toward α-arylacrylic acids

A Cs2CO3-promoted carboxylation of N-tosylhydrazones and CO2 has been developed. The reaction proceeded efficiently at 80 °C under atmospheric CO2, gave the corresponding α-arylacrylic acids in moderate to good yields. This method was featured with (1) the employment of Cs2CO3 rather than (n)BuLi as the base; (2) a reaction temperature of 80 °C rather than -78 °C.