Nickel-catalyzed decarboxylative coupling of an alkynyl carboxylic acid with aryl iodides

Practical Synthesis and Antifungal Investigation of Drimane Meroterpenoids Enabled by Nickel-Catalyzed Decarboxylative Coupling

Drimane meroterpenoids have drawn increasing attention in the discovery of novel pharmaceutical leads owing to their structural diversity and bioactivity variation, but further development is significantly impeded by the lack of an efficient modular route of preparation. A nickel-catalyzed decarboxylative cross-coupling paradigm has been established to expeditiously access a constellation of drimane meroterpenoids. The redox-active drimane precursor is a bench-stable coupling partner and is easily available from the inexpensive feedstock sclareol. This transformation features the tolerance of challenging functional groups (phenol, aldehyde, ester, etc.) and mild conditions with a low-cost nickel catalytic system. The synthetic utility is further highlighted by the direct scalable synthesis of challenging drimane meroterpenoids as diversifiable advanced intermediates for late-stage functionalizations. This method facilitated antifungal investigations and culminated in the discovery of compounds C8 and C3 as new antifungal leads against Rhizoctonia solani, with EC50 values of 4.9 and 7.2 μM, respectively.

Dehydrative and Decarboxylative Coupling of Alkynoic Acids with Allylic Alcohols

A direct dehydroxylative and decarboxylative coupling between a large number of allylic alcohols and alkynoic acids was realized affording 1,4-enyne motifs in high efficiency. In this reaction, calcium-promoted C–OH bond cleavage was crucial, which facilitated the sequential ­decarboxylation, and thus enabled the palladium-catalyzed allyl­–alkynyl coupling, which occurred in an environmentally benign manner tolerating a wide variety of functional groups. This protocol has been successfully used in preparing anticancer active rooperol derivatives in gram scale.

Applications of Nickel(II) Compounds in Organic Synthesis

This review article summarizes the applications of nickel(II) compounds in organic synthesis since 2016. In recent years, the field of nickel(II) catalysis is gaining considerable interest due to readily available, low-cost nickel(II)-compounds and several key properties of nickel. This review article is organized by the reaction type, although some reactions can be placed in multiple sections.

Facile one-pot synthesis of diarylacetylenes from arylaldehydes via an addition-double elimination process

A practical one-pot protocol has been developed to synthesize diarylacetylenes from arylaldehydes by treatment with 1-(arylmethyl)benzotriazoles and LiN(SiMe3)2. The reaction proceeded through imine formation, Mannich-type addition and double elimination to deliver products in up to 99% yields with broad substrate scope. In addition, gram-scale synthesis of 1-bromo-4-(phenylethynyl)benzene has been demonstrated.

Pd-Catalyzed decarboxylative alkynylation of alkynyl carboxylic acids with arylsulfonyl hydrazides via a desulfinative process

The decarboxylative alkynylation of alkynyl carboxylic acids and arylsulfonyl hydrazides by desulfinative coupling could provide aryl alkynes in satisfactory yields by either judiciously selecting palladium catalysts or modulating phosphine ligands under mild conditions.

Featuring Xantphos

This review highlights the use of the bisphosphine ligand group in homogeneous catalysis.

Cross-coupling reactivity of 1,1-dichloroalkenes under palladium catalysis: domino synthesis of diarylalkynes

An efficient synthesis of diarylalkynes was achieved from the domino cross-coupling reaction of 1,1-dichloroalkenes with triarylbismuth reagents under palladium-catalyzed conditions.

Controlled photorelease of alkynoic acids and their decarboxylative deprotection for copper-catalyzed azide/alkyne cycloaddition

A controlled photorelease of alkynoic acids from a photoremovable protecting group (PPG) facilitates their subsequent decarboxylation to deliver terminal alkynes for a Cu^I-catalyzed azide/alkyne cycloaddition.