Convenient Access to New Chiral Ferroceno-(iso)quinolines

Ferrocene derivatives with planar chirality and their enantioseparation by liquid-phase techniques

In the last decade, planar chiral ferrocenes have attracted a growing interest in several fields, particularly in asymmetric catalysis, medicinal chemistry, chiroptical spectroscopy and electrochemistry. In this frame, the access to pure or enriched enantiomers of planar chiral ferrocenes has become essential, relying on the availability of efficient asymmetric synthesis procedures and enantioseparation methods. Despite this, in enantioseparation science, these metallocenes were not comprehensively explored, and very few systematic analytical studies were reported in this field so far. On the other hand, enantioselective high-performance liquid chromatography has been frequently used by organic and organometallic chemists in order to measure the enantiomeric purity of planar chiral ferrocenes prepared by asymmetric synthesis. On these bases, this review aims to provide the reader with a comprehensive overview on the enantioseparation of planar chiral ferrocenes by discussing liquid-phase enantioseparation methods developed over time, integrating this main topic with the most relevant aspects of ferrocene chemistry. Thus, the main structural features of ferrocenes and the methods to model this class of metallocenes will be briefly summarized. In addition, planar chiral ferrocenes of applicative interest as well as the limits of asymmetric synthesis for the preparation of some classes of planar chiral ferrocenes will also be discussed with the aim to orient analytical scientists towards 'hot topics' and issues which are still open for accessing enantiomers of ferrocenes featured by planar chirality.

Synthesis of polyhalogenated 4,4'-bipyridines via a simple dimerization procedure

Polyhalogenated 4,4'-bipyridines were conveniently synthesized in a single step starting from dihalopyridines. A mechanism was proposed on the basis of experiments performed with 2-chloro-5-bromopyridine 1a. 2-Chloro-4-lithio-5-bromopyridine A1 was produced via ortholithiation of 1a by using either LDA or t-BuLi bases. When LDA was used, dimer 3a containing two chlorines and two bromine atoms was formed predominantly accompanied by several byproducts whose structure and mechanism of formation are discussed. In the case of t-BuLi, although the major product was 2-chloropyridine 7, a new pyridone product 8 was formed that is probably the result of the dihydropyridine intermediate hydrolysis. The dimerization procedure involving LDA was employed to prepare a large number of halogenated 4,4'-bipyridines in moderate to good yields. In some specific cases, halogenated 3,4' and 2,4'-bipyridines were obtained in lower yields and their structures were unambiguously assigned by X-ray diffraction analysis.

The methyl group as a source of structural diversity in heterocyclic chemistry: side chain functionalization of picolines and related heterocycles

The reaction of 2-picoline at the methyl group with NDA and KDA followed by dimethyldisulfide trapping furnished, respectively, dithioacetals and trithioortho esters with high selectivity. The method was successfully applied to other methyl-substituted pyridines, quinolines, and pyrazines. Dithioketals were prepared by a one-pot procedure involving the reaction of metalated 2-picoline with 2 equiv of dimethyldisulfide followed by in situ trapping with a second electrophile. All of the generated thio-substituted compounds were efficiently transformed in presence of mercury salts or under oxidizing conditions to other functional groups comprising aldehydes, ketones, ketals, thiol esters, orthoesters, and esters.

Synthesis and Coordination Behavior of Planar-Chiral Ferrocene Alkenylphosphines

A series of planar-chiral ferrocene alkenylphosphines, (S(p))-2-(diphenylphosphino)-1-vinylferrocene (2), (S(p))-2-(diphenylphosphino)-1-(prop-1-en-1-yl)ferrocene (3; as a mixture of Z and E isomers in ca. 5:1 ratio), and (E,S(p))-2-(diphenylphosphino)-1-(2-phenylethen-1-yl)ferrocene ((E)-4), was obtained by Wittig and Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons reactions from the common precursor, (S(p))-2-(diphenylphosphino)ferrocene-1-carboxaldehyde (1). Coordination properties of these novel ferrocene donors were studied in their palladium(II) and tungsten(0)-carbonyl complexes. The reaction between 2 and [{Pd(mu-Cl)(L(NC))}2] (5, L(NC) = 2-{(dimethylamino)methyl-kappaN}phenyl-kappaC(1)) gave the bridge-cleavage product [PdCl(L(NC))(2-kappaP)] (6) while the reaction with [Pd(L(NC))(MeCN)2]ClO4 (7) yielded the cationic bis(chelate) [Pd(L(NC))(2-eta2:kappaP)]ClO4 (8). Chelate complexes of the type [W(CO)4(L-eta2:kappaP)] (9 with L = 2; (Z/E)-10 with L = (Z/E)-3) were obtained by reacting [W(CO)4(cod)] (cod = eta2:eta2-cycloocta-1,5-diene) with the appropriate phosphinoalkene in refluxing toluene while a similar reaction with (E)-4 yielded mixtures of [W(CO)5(4-kappaP)] ((E)-11) and [W(CO)4(4-eta2:kappaP)] ((E)-12). All compounds were characterized by spectral methods (multinuclear NMR, IR, MS, and CD), and the structures of 1, 2, 8, 9, (Z/E)-10, and (E)-11 were corroborated by X-ray diffraction analysis. Ligands 2 and (E)-4 as well as their complexes 6, 8, 9, (E)-11, and (E)-12 were further studied by electrochemical methods.