Electro-Oxidative sp3 C-H Bond Functionalization and Annulation Cascade: Synthesis of Novel Heterocyclic Substituted Indolizines

Electrochemical C-H Alkylation of Azauracils Using N-(Acyloxy)phthalimides

We present an electrochemical alkylation of azauracils using N-(acyloxy)phthalimides (NHPI esters) as readily available alkyl radical progenitors under metal- and additive-free conditions. Several azauracils are shown to undergo alkylation with an array of NHPI esters (1°, 2°, 3°, and sterically congested), providing the desired products in good to excellent yields. This operationally simple method is robust, scalable, and suitable for both batch and flow setups.

Cascade Electrochemical Aerobic Oxygenation of 2-Substituted Indoles and Electrochemical [5 + 3] Annulation with Amidines: Access to Eight-Membered Benzo[1,3,5]triazocin-6(5H)-ones

The cascade electrochemical C3-selective aerobic oxygenation of 2-substituted indoles and electrochemical [5 + 3] annulation with amidines through an undivided cell galvanostatic method employing molecular oxygen and "electricity" as green oxidants was developed. This protocol provides an efficient and direct approach to eight-membered benzo[1,3,5]triazocin-6(5H)-ones. Mechanistic studies suggested that two subsequent electrochemical processes both proceeded through radical pathways.

Chiral Phosphoric Acid-Catalyzed Asymmetric Friedel-Crafts Addition of Indolizine to Cyclic N-Sulfonyl Imine

A highly efficient chiral phosphoric acid-catalyzed enantioselective Friedel-Crafts addition of indolizine to cyclic N-sulfonyl imine has been established. The newly developed protocol, which probably proceeds via a monoactivation reaction pathway, allows the access of enantioenriched sulfonamide functionalized indolizines with excellent yields (up to 99%) and enantioselectivities (up to 99%). Moreover, the synthetic utility of this protocol has been explored with some chemical transformations.

Electrochemical Post-Ugi Cyclization for the Synthesis of Highly Functionalized Spirolactams

The combination of the Ugi reaction and electro-organic synthesis can aid in the creation of novel heterocycles that have not been previously explored. In this study, a new strategy utilizing bis-amides from the Ugi reaction has been developed, which can produce C-S, C-Se, and C-C═O functionalized five-membered spirolactams mediated by electricity under catalyst- and metal-free conditions. Notably, this approach can be applied using a microelectro-flow reactor (μ-EFR) for gram-scale synthesis. The described strategy can synthesize complex azaspiro-fused tricyclic scaffolds with high diastereo- and regioselectivity, highlighting its versatility and potential.

Electrochemical Syntheses of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs)

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have surfaced as increasingly viable components in optoelectronics and material sciences. The development of highly efficient and atom-economic tools to prepare PAHs under exceedingly mild conditions constitutes a long-term goal. Traditional syntheses of PAHs have largely relied on multistep approaches or the conventional Scholl reaction. However, Scholl reactions are largely inefficient with electron-deficient substrates, require stoichiometric chemical oxidants, and typically occur in the presence of strong acid. In sharp contrast, electrochemistry has gained considerable momentum during the past decade as an alternative for the facile and straightforward PAHs assembly, generally via electro-oxidative dehydrogenative annulation, releasing molecular hydrogen as the sole stoichiometric byproduct by the hydrogen evolution reaction. This review provides an overview on the recent and significant advances in the field of electrochemical syntheses of various PAHs until January 2023.

DDQ/Fe(NO3)3-Catalyzed Aerobic Synthesis of 3-Acyl Indoles and an In Silico Study for the Binding Affinity of N-Tosyl-3-acyl Indoles toward RdRp against SARS-CoV-2

In the present study, we herein report a DDQ-catalyzed new protocol for the synthesis of substituted 3-acylindoles. Being a potential system for virtual hydrogen storage, introduction of catalytic DDQ in combination with Fe(NO₃)₃·9H₂O and molecular oxygen as co-catalysts offers a regioselective oxo-functionalization of C-3 alkyl-/aryllidine indolines even with scale-up investigations. Intermediate isolation, their spectroscopic characterization, and the density functional theory calculations indicate that the method involves dehydrogenative allylic hydroxylation and 1,3-functional group isomerization/aromatization followed by terminal oxidation to afford 3-acylindoles quantitatively with very high regioselectivity. This method is very general for a large number of substrates with varieties of functional groups tolerance emerging high-yield outcome. Moreover, molecular docking studies were performed for some selected ligands with an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase complex (RdRp complex) of SARS-CoV-2 to illustrate the binding potential of those ligands. The docking results revealed that few of the ligands possess the potential to inhibit the RdRp of SARS-Cov-2 with binding energies (-6.7 to -8.19 kcal/mol), which are comparably higher with respect to the reported binding energies of the conventional re-purposed drugs such as Remdesivir, Ribavirin, and so forth (-4 to -7 kcal/mol).

Electrochemical Regioselective Sulfenylation of 2H-Indazoles with Thiols in Batch and Continuous Flow

A novel electrochemical cross-dehydrogenative C-S bond coupling of aryl thiols with 2H-indazole is reported. Thiol-functionalized 2H-indazoles were synthesized under catalyst-, oxidant-, and metal-free conditions with innocuous hydrogen as the sole byproduct at ambient temperature. Furthermore, continuous electrochemical flow conditions using a graphite/Ni flow cell were used to obtained 3-(arylthio)-2H-indazole compounds on a gram scale within the residence time of 39 min. Detailed mechanistic studies including control experiments and cyclic voltammetry are provided to support the radical-radical cross-coupling pathway.