Selective 6-endo Cyclization of the Acyl Radicals onto the Nitrogen of Imine and Oxazoline C−N Bonds

Switchable Radical Carbonylation by Philicity Regulation

Carbonylation reactions involving CO as readily available C1 synthons have become one of the most important tools for the construction of carbonyl compounds from feedstock chemicals. Despite numerous catalytic methods for carbonylation reactions proceeding via ionic or radical pathways, an inherent limitation to these methods is the need to control switchable single and double carbonylative formation of value-added products from the same and simple starting materials. Here, we describe a new strategy that exploits photoredox catalysis to regulate the philicity of amine coupling partners to drive switchable radical carbonylation reactions. In double carbonylation, amines were first transformed into nitrogen radical cations by single-electron transfer-oxidation and coupled with CO to form carbamoyl radicals, which further underwent radical cross-coupling with the incipient cyanoalkyl acyl radicals to afford the double carbonylation products. Upon the addition of stoichiometric 4-dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP), DMAP competitively traps the initially formed cyanoalkyl acyl radical to form the relatively stabilized cyanoalkyl acyl-DMAP salts that engaged in the subsequent substitution with the nucleophilic amines to produce the single carbonylation products. The reaction proceeded smoothly with excellent selectivity in the presence of various amine nucleophiles at room temperature, generating valuable amides and α-ketoamides in a versatile and controlled fashion. Combined experimental and computational studies provided mechanistic insights into the possible pathways.

Palladium-Catalyzed Cascade Carbonylation to α,β-Unsaturated Piperidones via Selective Cleavage of Carbon-Carbon Triple Bonds

A direct and selective synthesis of α,β-unsaturated piperidones by a new palladium-catalyzed cascade carbonylation is described. In the presented protocol, easily available propargylic alcohols react with aliphatic amines to provide a broad variety of interesting heterocycles. Key to the success of this transformation is a remarkable catalytic cleavage of the present carbon-carbon triple bond by using a specific catalyst with 2-diphenylphosphinopyridine as ligand and appropriate reaction conditions. Mechanistic studies and control experiments revealed branched unsaturated acid 11 as crucial intermediate.

Synthesis of α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds by carbonylation reactions

Carbonylation reactions represent one of the most important tool box for the synthesis of α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds which are key building blocks in organic chemistry. This paper summarizes the most important advances in this field.

Applications of Radical Carbonylation and Amine Addition Chemistry: 1,4-Hydrogen Transfer of 1-Hydroxylallyl Radicals

1,4-Hydrogen transfer from the 1-hydroxyallyl radical to give the enoxyl (α-keto) radical is an exothermic process with a high activation energy based on DFT calculations. The lack of experimental examples of such 1,4-H shift reactions lies in the difficulty of generating the 1-hydroxyallyl radical. We have shown that radical carbonylation of alkenyl radicals with CO followed by nucleophilic trapping of the carbonyl portion of the resulting radical by amines gives rise to 1-amino-substituted 1-hydroxyallyl radicals in situ. At the outset of this chemistry, we examined intramolecular trapping reactions via radical carbonylation of alkynylamines mediated by tributyltin hydride. Consequently, α-methylene lactams were obtained, for which the initially formed 1-amino-substituted 1-hydroxyallyl radical underwent a 1,4-H shift followed by subsequent β-scission, which led to the expulsion of a tributyltin radical. A competing pathway of the 1,4-H shift of 1-amino-substituted 1-hydroxyallyl radicals involving hydrogen abstraction was observed, which led to the formation of α-stannylmethylene lactams as a major byproduct. However, in contrast, when intermolecular trapping of α-ketenyl radicals by amines was carried out, the 1,4-H shift from the 1-amino-substituted 1-hydroxyallyl radical became the major pathway, which gave good yields of α,β-unsaturated amides. Thus, we were able to develop three-component reactions comprising terminal alkynes, CO, and amines that led to α,β-unsaturated amides via the 1,4-H shift reaction. DFT calculations support the observation that the 1,4-H shift is more facile when 1-hydroxyallyl radicals have both 1-amino and 3-tin substituents. The choice of substituents on the amine nitrogen is also important, since N-C bond cleavage via an S_H2-type reaction can become a competing pathway. Such an unusual S_H2-type reaction at the amine nitrogen is favored when the leaving alkyl radicals are stable, such as PhC(•)H(CH₃) and t-Bu•. Interestingly, even nucleophilic attack of tertiary amines onto α-ketenyl radicals causes cleavage of the C-N bond. For this reaction, DFT calculations predict an indirect homolytic substitution mechanism involving expulsion of alkyl radicals through the zwitterionic radical intermediate arising from nucleophilic amine addition onto the α-ketenyl radical. In contrast, the carbonylation of aryl radicals, generated from aryl iodides, in the presence of amines gave aromatic carboxylic amides in good yields. It is proposed that radical anions originating from acyl radicals and amines undergo electron transfer to aryl iodides to give aminocarbonylation products.

A copper-catalyzed arylation/nucleophilic addition/fragmentation/C–S bond formation cascade: synthesis of bis(arylthio)imines

A new arylation/nucleophilic addition/fragmentation/C–S bond formation cascade was developed using isothiocyanates and diaryliodonium salts.

Intramolecular Minisci acylation under silver-free neutral conditions for the synthesis of azafluorenones and fluorenones

An intramolecular Minisci acylation under silver-free neutral conditions providing access to azafluorenones and fluorenones has been developed.

Radical reactions of borohydrides

This review article focuses on state-of-the-art borohydride based radical reactions, also covering earlier work, kinetics and some DFT calculations with respect to the hydrogen transfer mechanism.

A construction of 4,4-spirocyclic γ-lactams by tandem radical cyclization with carbon monoxide

A straightforward synthesis of 4,4-spirocyclic indol γ-lactams by tandem radical cyclization of iodoaryl allyl azides with CO was achieved. The reaction of iodoaryl allyl azides, TTMSS and AIBN under CO pressure (80 atm) in THF at 80 °C gave the desired 4,4-spirocyclic indoline, benzofuran, and oxindole γ-lactams in moderate to good yields.

Microwave-promoted syntheses of quinazolines and dihydroquinazolines from 2-aminoarylalkanone O-phenyl oximes

A wide range of biologically active compounds contain the quinazoline ring system. A new free-radical-based method of making functionalized quinazolines is described, which relies on microwave-promoted reactions of O-phenyl oximes with aldehydes. A small set of 2-aminoaryl alkanone O-phenyl oximes was prepared and shown to produce dihydroquinazolines when mixed with an aldehyde in toluene and subjected to microwave heating. When ZnCl(2) was included in the reaction mixture, fully aromatic quinazolines were produced in high yields by a rapid and convenient process. The method worked well with alkyl, aryl, and heterocyclic aldehydes and for a variety of substituents in the benzenic part of the molecule. Similar reactions employing ketones instead of aldehydes were less efficient. Although some dihydroquinazolines did form, they were accompanied by several byproducts. Surprisingly, in each case, one of the byproducts was a quinoline derivative, and a plausible mechanism to account for this rearrangement is proposed.

Radical and radical-ionic multicomponent processes

All in one pot! Radical, radical-ionic, and radical-organometallic MCR are highly convergent processes, representing a useful pathway to molecular and structural diversity (see scheme). This concept article highlights recent developments in the field and shows the potential of the strategy for the economical elaboration of various kinds of organic substrates.Progress in multicomponent reactions (MCRs) based on ionic and organometallic processes has recently allowed the synthesis, with high efficiency, of large collections of drug-like molecules. In contrast, MCRs based on cascade radical reactions appear to have attracted, so far, much less interest. This concept article highlights the latest progress in the field and underlines the potential of such an approach. The collected examples demonstrate that radical and radical-ionic MCRs are highly convergent processes leading to useful structural diversity.

Regiochemistry of Copper(I)-Mediated Cyclization Reactions of Halo-dienamides

Reaction of 2-substituted dienamides with catalytic amounts of copper halide/tripyridylamine (TPA) furnishes either 5-exo or 6-endo products with the outcome dependent upon the radical initiating unit. Reaction of 3-substituted dienamides produces beta-lactams via a 4-exo cyclization with termination of the reaction occurring via either halogen atom transfer, trapping with oxygen, elimination, or radical-radical coupling depending upon the diene.

Radicals masquerading as electrophiles: dual orbital effects in nitrogen-philic acyl radical cyclization and related addition reactions

Free-radical chemistry has come a long way in a relatively short period of time. The synthetic practitioner takes for granted the wealth of mechanistic and rate constant data now available and can apply free-radical techniques to the synthesis of many different classes of target molecule with confidence. Despite this, there are still mechanistic anomalies that need to be addressed. This Account highlights recent work involving nucleophilic radicals with low-lying unoccupied orbitals, such as acyl, oxyacyl, silyl, stannyl, and germyl radicals. Through interesting singly occupied molecular orbital (SOMO)-pi* and highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO)-lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) interactions during these reactions, the radicals involved are able to mask as electrophiles, providing high levels of regiocontrol and efficient methods for the synthesis of important heterocycles.

Synthesis of Lactams by Radical Substitution Reaction of α,β-Unsaturated Acyl Radicals at Amine Nitrogen

[reaction: see text] Substitution at nitrogen by alpha,beta-unsaturated acyl radicals took place accompanied by elimination of an alpha-phenethyl radical. This reaction led to the development of a new carbonylative annulation method for five- to seven-membered ring lactams.