N-Alkynylpyridinium Salts: Highly Electrophilic Alkyne–Pyridine Conjugates as Precursors of Cationic Nitrogen-Embedded Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

Synthesis of Azonia Aromatic Heterocycles Bearing 6-6-6-5-6 Pentacyclic Core via Intramolecular [4 + 2]-Cycloaddition and Oxidative Aromatization Reaction Sequence in One Pot

Cationic aza-heterocycle-fused compounds have gained wide applications in materials science, biological applications, and synthetic organic chemistry. In this report, synthesis of benzothiazolochromenopyridinium tetrafluoroborates, a novel molecular scaffold, bearing 6-6-6-5-6 pentacyclic core is described that proceeds via (i) piperidine-catalyzed Knoevenagel condensation between 2-propargyloxyarylaldehydes bearing internal alkynes and 2-benzothiazoleacetonitrile, (ii) intramolecular formal [4 + 2]-cycloaddition, and (iii) crucial molecular oxygen-mediated oxidative aromatization reaction sequence in one pot. These quaternary pyridinium salts are obtained at ambient temperature in good to high yields.

Medicinal Importance and Chemosensing Applications of Pyridine Derivatives: A Review

Pyridine derivatives are the most common and significant heterocyclic compounds, which play an important role in various fields ranging from medicinal to chemosensing applications. Pyridine derivatives possess different biological activities such as antifungal, antibacterial, antioxidant, antiglycation, analgesic, antiparkinsonian, anticonvulsant, anti-inflammatory, ulcerogenic, antiviral, and anticancer activity. Furthermore, these derivatives have a high affinity for various ions and neutral species and can be used as a highly effective chemosensor for the determination of different species. In this review article, generally used synthetic routes of pyridine, structural characterization, medicinal applications, and potential of pyridine derivatives in analytical chemistry as chemosensors have been discussed. We hope this study will support the new thoughts to design biological active compounds and highly selective and effective chemosensors for the detection of various species (anions, cations, and neutral species) in various samples (environmental, agricultural, and biological). [Figure: see text].

Cu/Fe-mediated N(sp2)-arylation/alkenylation of pyridines with aryl-/alkenylboronic acids to yield versatile cationic materials

Cu/Fe-mediated N(sp2)-arylation/alkenylation of pyridines with aryl-/alkenylboronic acids to yield length-controllable and multi-responsive pyridinium salts is disclosed.

Synthesis of Conjugated Polymers via Transition Metal Catalysed C-H Bond Activation

Transition metal catalysed C-H bond activation chemistry has emerged as an exciting and promising approach in organic synthesis. This allows us to synthesize a wider range of functional molecules and conjugated polymers in a more convenient and more atom economical way. The formation of C-C bonds in the construction of pi-conjugated systems, particularly for conjugated polymers, has benefited much from the advances in C-H bond activation chemistry. Compared to conventional transition-metal catalysed cross-coupling polymerization such as Suzuki and Stille cross-coupling, pre-functionalization of aromatic monomers, such as halogenation, borylation and stannylation, is no longer required for direct arylation polymerization (DArP), which involve C-H/C-X cross-coupling, and oxidative direct arylation polymerization (Ox-DArP), which involves C-H/C-H cross-coupling protocols driven by the activation of monomers' C(sp² )-H bonds. Furthermore, poly(annulation) via C-H bond activation chemistry leads to the formation of unique pi-conjugated moieties as part of the polymeric backbone. This review thus summarises advances to date in the synthesis of conjugated polymers utilizing transition metal catalysed C-H bond activation chemistry. A variety of conjugated polymers via DArP including poly(thiophene), thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione)-containing, fluorenyl-containing, benzothiadiazole-containing and diketopyrrolopyrrole-containing copolymers, were summarized. Conjugated polymers obtained through Ox-DArP were outlined and compared. Furthermore, poly(annulation) using transition metal catalysed C-H bond activation chemistry was also reviewed. In the last part of this review, difficulties and perspective to make use of transition metal catalysed C-H activation polymerization to prepare conjugated polymers were discussed and commented.

Modular Synthesis of Pentagonal and Hexagonal Ring-Fused NBN-Phenalenes Leading to an Excited-State Aromatization-Induced Structural Planarization Molecular Library

Although polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with a nitrogen-boron-nitrogen (NBN) moiety have recently attracted tremendous interest due to their intriguing electronic and optoelectronic properties, all of the NBN-fused π-systems reported to date are called NBN-dibenzophenalenes and were synthesized by electrophilic aromatic substitution. The synthesis of NBN-phenalenes remains challenging, and transition-metal catalysis has never been utilized to construct NBN-embedded π-scaffolds. Herein, a palladium-catalyzed cyclization/bicyclization strategy was developed for the synthesis of diverse pentagonal and hexagonal ring-fused NBN-phenalenes and half-NBN-phenalenes. All of the NBN-embedded π-scaffolds presented in our paper are fluorescent in both solution and the solid state. Further investigations showed that the five-membered NBN rings exhibit the properties of traditional luminogens, while those with a six-membered NBN ring generally undergo photoinduced structural planarization (PISP) and exhibit different colors and quantum yields of fluorescence with different concentrations in solution. Time-resolved spectroscopy and TD-DFT calculations revealed that excited-state aromatization is the driving force for PISP in hexagonal ring-fused NBN-π systems, leading to the formation of excimers. Notably, the scope of PISP compounds is still quite limited, and PISP has never been observed in NBN-π systems before. These hexagonal ring-fused NBN-π systems constitute a novel PISP molecular library and appear to be a new class of aggregation-induced excimer emission (AIEE) materials. Finally, the AIEE behavior of these six-membered NBN rings was applied to the detection of nitro explosives, achieving excellent sensitivity. In general, this work provides a new viewpoint for synthesizing NBN-fused π-systems and understanding the excited-state motion of luminogens.

Merging C-H Vinylation with Switchable 6π-Electrocyclizations for Divergent Heterocycle Synthesis

Pyridinium-containing polyheterocycles exhibit distinctive biological properties and interesting electrochemical and optical properties and thus are widely used as drugs, functional materials, and photocatalysts. Here, we describe a unified two-step strategy by merging Rh-catalyzed C-H vinylation with two switchable electrocyclizations, including aza-6π-electrocyclization and all-carbon-6π-electrocyclization, for rapid and divergent access to dihydropyridoisoquinoliniums and dihydrobenzoquinolines. Through computation, the high selectivity of aza-electrocyclization in the presence of an appropriate "HCl" source under either thermal conditions or photochemical conditions is shown to result from the favorable kinetics and symmetries of frontier orbitals. We further demonstrated the value of this protocol by the synthesis of several complex pyridinium-containing polyheterocycles, including the two alkaloids berberine and chelerythrine.

Site-Selective N-Methylation of 5,15-Diazaporphyrins: Reactive Cationic Porphyrinoids that Provide Isoporphyrin Analogues

N-Alkylation significantly changes the electronic and optical properties, as well as the reactivity of nitrogen-containing π-conjugated molecules. In this study, it is found that treating 5,15-diazaporphyrins with methyl triflate selectively affords the corresponding N-methyl-5,15-diazaporphyrinium cations in good yield. N-Methylation substantially alters the electronic properties and reactivity of diazaporphyrins. The electron-accepting properties of the N-methyl-5,15-diazaporphyrinium cations are enhanced due to their lowered LUMO level. Stabilization of the LUMO energy enables regio- and stereoselective Diels-Alder reactions of the cationic diazaporphyrin with cyclopentadiene. N-Methylation also enhances the acidity of the inner NH protons, and thus, allows facile deprotonation to provide nitrogen-substituted isoporphyrin analogues with only one NH group in the central cavity.

Preparation and Utility of N-Alkynyl Azoles in Synthesis

Heteroatom-substituted alkynes have attracted a significant amount of interest in the synthetic community due to the polarized nature of these alkynes and their utility in a wide range of reactions. One specific class of heteroatom-substituted alkynes combines this utility with the presence of an azole moiety. These N-alkynyl azoles have been known for nearly 50 years, but recently there has been a tremendous increase in the number of reports detailing the synthesis and utility of this class of compound. While much of the chemistry of N-alkynyl azoles mirrors that of the more extensively studied N-alkynyl amides (ynamides), there are notable exceptions. In addition, as azoles are extremely common in natural products and pharmaceuticals, these N-alkynyl azoles have high potential for accessing biologically important compounds. In this review, the literature reports of N-alkynyl azole synthesis, reactions, and uses have been assembled. Collectively, these reports demonstrate the growth in this area and the promise of exploiting N-alkynyl azoles in synthesis.

A new class of N-doped ionic PAHsviaintramolecular [4+2]-cycloaddition between arylpyridines and alkynes

Reported herein, for the first time, is a copper-promoted intramolecular [4+2]-cycloaddition cascade to access ionic N-doped polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with tunable emission wavelengths.