Electrophilic Activation of Lactams with Tf2O and Pyridine: Expedient Synthesis of (±)-Tetraponerine T4

Tf2O/2-Chloropyridine-Triggered Synthesis of Benzo[b]thiophene 1,1-Dioxides from Sulfonium α-Acyl Sulfonylmethylides

Triflic anhydride and 2-chloropyridine-comediated tandem activation, intramolecular aromatic electrophilic addition, and 1,2-sulfonyl shift via spirocyclic intermediates of sulfonium α-acyl sulfonylmethylides realize the efficient synthesis of 2-alkyl/arylthiobenzo[b]thiophene 1,1-dioxides. The deactivated sulfonyl group determines the site-selectivity of the electrophilic addition via the ipso-attack, while the following S-migration controls the regioselectivity. Some of 2-methylthiobenzo[b]thiophene 1,1-dioxides show fluorescence properties in the solid state and in their solutions.

Synthesis of pyrimidine-containing alkaloids

This review deals with the synthesis of naturally occurring alkaloids containing partially or completely saturated pyrimidine nuclei. The interest in these compounds is associated with their structural diversity, high biological activity and toxicity. The review is divided into four parts, each of which describes a number of synthetic methodologies toward structurally different naturally occurring alkaloids containing saturated cyclic six-membered amidine, guanidine, aminal and urea (thiourea) moieties, respectively. The development of various synthetic strategies for the preparation of these compounds has remarkably increased during the past few decades. This is primarily due to the fact that some of these compounds are isolated only in limited quantities, which makes it practically impossible to study their full structural characteristics and biological activity.

Bischler-Napieralski Synthesis of 6-Alkynyl Phenanthridines Based on Tf2O-Promoted Electrophilic Activation of N-Aryl-2-propynamides

An efficient method for the synthesis of 6-alkynyl phenanthridines was developed. The method offered the first example to use 2-propynamides as substrates in the Bischler-Napieralski reaction and to create alkynylnitrilium triflates as new active intermediates in organic synthesis.

Atypical and Asymmetric 1,3-P,N Ligands: Synthesis, Coordination and Catalytic Performance of Cycloiminophosphanes

Novel seven-membered cyclic imine-based 1,3-P,N ligands were obtained by capturing a Beckmann nitrilium ion intermediate generated in situ from cyclohexanone with benzotriazole, and then displacing it by a secondary phosphane under triflic acid promotion. These "cycloiminophosphanes" possess flexible non-isomerizable tetrahydroazepine rings with a high basicity; this sets them apart from previously reported iminophophanes. The donor strength of the ligands was investigated by using their P-κ1 - and P,N-κ2 -tungsten(0) carbonyl complexes, by determining the IR frequency of the trans-CO ligands. Complexes with [RhCp*Cl2 ]2 demonstrated the hemilability of the ligands, giving a dynamic equilibrium of κ1 and κ2 species; treatment with AgOTf gives full conversion to the κ2 complex. The potential for catalysis was shown in the RuII -catalyzed, solvent-free hydration of benzonitrile and the RuII - and IrI -catalyzed transfer hydrogenation of cyclohexanone in isopropanol. Finally, to enable access to asymmetric catalysts, chiral cycloiminophosphanes were prepared from l-menthone, as well as their P,N-κ2 -RhIII and a P-κ1 -RuII complexes.

Practical one-pot amidation of N-Alloc-, N-Boc-, and N-Cbz protected amines under mild conditions

A facile one-pot synthesis of amides from N-Alloc-, N-Boc-, and N-Cbz-protected amines has been described. The reactions involve the use of isocyanate intermediates, which are generated in situ in the presence of 2-chloropyridine and trifluoromethanesulfonyl anhydride, to react with Grignard reagents to produce the corresponding amides. Using this reaction protocol, a variety of N-Alloc-, N-Boc-, and N-Cbz-protected aliphatic amines and aryl amines were efficiently converted to amides with high yields. This method is highly effective for the synthesis of amides and offers a promising approach for facile amidation.

One-pot efficient transformation of N-Alloc-, N-Boc-, and N-Cbz protected amines to amides was achieved by using 2-chloropyridine and trifluoromethanesulfonyl anhydride as well as Grignard reagent and MgCl₂.

A predictive model for additions to N-alkyl pyridiniums

Disclosed in this communication is a thorough study on the dearomative addition of organomagnesium nucleophiles to N-alkyl pyridinium electrophiles. The regiochemical outcomes have observable and predictable trends associated with the substituent patterns on the pyridinium electrophile. Often, the substituent effects can be either additive, giving high selectivities, or ablative, giving competing outcomes. Additionally, the nature of the organometallic nucleophilic component was also investigated for its role in the regioselective outcome. The effects of either reactive component are important to both the overall reactivity and site of nucleophilic addition. The utility of these observed trends is demonstrated in a concise, dearomative synthesis of a tricyclic compound shown to have insecticidal activity.

Synthesis of Spirocyclic Isoindolones Using an Alkynyl aza-Prins/Oxidative halo-Nazarov Cyclization Sequence

In this report, we describe an alkynyl halo-aza-Prins cyclization of 3-hydroxyisoindolones to prepare aza-Prins products. These Prins adducts undergo oxidation at the 3-isoindolone position after activation of the amide by triflic anhydride and 2-chloropyridine to form a pentadienyl cation capable of undergoing a halo-Nazarov cyclization. Using this methodology, angular-fused N-heterocyclic small molecules with two new rings, two new carbon-carbon bonds, a vinyl halide, and an aza-tertiary stereocenter can be obtained in good yields.

Regioselective side-chain amination of 2-alkyl azacycles by radical translocation: total synthesis of tetraponerine T8

The regioselective γ-C-H amination of the side-chain of saturated 2-alkyl nitrogen heterocycles is reported, proceeding through a sulfamide-directed 1,6-radical translocation. The practicality of this rapid access to 1,3-diamines is highlighted in a short synthesis of the alkaloid tetraponerine T8 and non-natural analogues.

Alkynoates as Versatile and Powerful Chemical Tools for the Rapid Assembly of Diverse Heterocycles under Transition-Metal Catalysis: Recent Developments and Challenges

Heterocycles, heteroaromatics and spirocyclic entities are ubiquitous components of a wide plethora of synthetic drugs, biologically active natural products, marketed pharmaceuticals and agrochemical targets. Recognizing their high proportion in drugs and rich pharmacological potential, these invaluable structural motifs have garnered significant interest, thus enabling the development of efficient catalytic methodologies providing access to architecturally complex and diverse molecules with high atom-economy and low cost. These chemical processes not only allow the formation of diverse heterocycles but also utilize a range of flexible and easily accessible building units in a single operation to discover diversity-oriented synthetic approaches. Alkynoates are significantly important, diverse and powerful building blocks in organic chemistry due to their unique and inherent properties such as the electronic bias on carbon-carbon triple bonds posed by electron-withdrawing groups or the metallic coordination site provided by carbonyl groups. The present review highlights the comprehensive picture of the utility of alkynoates (2007-2019) for the synthesis of various heterocycles (> 50 types) using transition-metal catalysts (Ru, Rh, Pd, Ir, Ag, Au, Pt, Cu, Mn, Fe) in various forms. The valuable function of versatile alkynoates (bearing multifunctional groups) as simple and useful starting materials is explored, thus cyclizing with an array of coupling partners to deliver a broad range of oxygen-, nitrogen-, sulfur-containing heterocycles alongside fused-, and spiro-heterocyclic compounds. In addition, these examples will also focus the scope and reaction limitations, as well as mechanistic investigations into the synthesis of these heterocycles. The biological significance will also be discussed, citing relevant examples of drug molecules highlighting each class of heterocycles. This review summarizes the recent developments in the synthetic methods for the synthesis of various heterocycles using alkynoates as readily available starting materials under transition-metal catalysis.

Chemoselective α-Sulfidation of Amides Using Sulfoxide Reagents

The direct α-sulfidation of tertiary amides using sulfoxide reagents under electrophilic amide activation conditions is described. Employing convenient and readily available reagents, selective functionalization takes place to generate isolable sulfonium ions en route to α-sulfide amides. Mechanistic studies identified activated sulfoxides as promoters of the desired transformation and enabled the extension of the methodology from benzylic to aliphatic amide substrates.

Tf2O-Mediated Cyclization of α-Acyl-β-(2-aminopyridinyl)acrylamides: Access to N-Substituted 4H-Pyrido[1,2-a]pyrimidin-4-imines

A facile and efficient direct synthesis of N-substituted 4H-pyrido[1,2-a]pyrimidin-4-imines is developed from α-acyl-β-(2-aminopyridinyl)acrylamides mediated by triflic anhydride (Tf₂O) in the presence of 2-chloropyridine. This amide activation protocol features mild reaction conditions, simple execution, excellent yields, and high chemoselectivity, and is also applied to the synthesis of substituted 4H-pyrido[1,2-a]pyrimidin-4-ones via a practical one-pot procedure.

Unified Approach to the Chemoselective α-Functionalization of Amides with Heteroatom Nucleophiles

Functionalization at the α-position of carbonyl compounds has classically relied on enolate chemistry. As a result, the generation of a new C–X bond, where X is more electronegative than carbon requires an oxidation event. Herein we show that, by rendering the α-position of amides electrophilic through a mild and chemoselective umpolung transformation, a broad range of widely available oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and halogen nucleophiles can be used to generate α-functionalized amides. More than 60 examples are presented to establish the generality of this process, and calculations of the mechanistic aspects underline a fragmentation pathway that accounts for the broadness of this methodology.

Amide activation: an emerging tool for chemoselective synthesis

It is textbook knowledge that carboxamides benefit from increased stabilisation of the electrophilic carbonyl carbon when compared to other carbonyl and carboxyl derivatives. This results in a considerably reduced reactivity towards nucleophiles. Accordingly, a perception has been developed of amides as significantly less useful functional handles than their ester and acid chloride counterparts. However, a significant body of research on the selective activation of amides to achieve powerful transformations under mild conditions has emerged over the past decades. This review article aims at placing electrophilic amide activation in both a historical context and in that of natural product synthesis, highlighting the synthetic applications and the potential of this approach.

Parallel Synthesis of 1H-Pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines via Condensation of N-Pyrazolylamides and Nitriles

A novel parallel medicinal chemistry (PMC)-enabled synthesis of 1H-pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidines employing condensation of easily accessible N-pyrazolylamides and nitriles has been developed. The presented studies describe singleton and library enablements that allowed rapid generation of molecular diversity to examine C4 and C6 vectors. This chemistry enabled access to challenging alkyl substituents, expanding the overall chemical space beyond that available via typical C(sp²)-C(sp²) coupling and S_NAr transformations. Furthermore, monomer group interconversions allowing the use of larger and more diverse amides and carboxylic acids as precursors to nitriles are discussed.

Hydroxamic Acids as Chemoselective (ortho-Amino)arylation Reagents via Sigmatropic Rearrangement

The use of readily available hydroxamic acids as reagents for the chemoselective (ortho-amino)arylation of amides is described. This reaction proceeds under metal-free, mild conditions, displays a very broad scope, and constitutes a direct approach for the metal-free attachment of aniline residues to carbonyl derivatives.

Making the Least Reactive Electrophile the First in Class: Domino Electrophilic Activation of Amides

The electrophilic activation of amides, especially by the action of trifluoromethanesulfonic (triflic) anhydride, enables the formation of highly electrophilic and reactive intermediates, lending themselves to diverse reaction pathways. This synopsis sets out to highlight recent advances in the field of amide activation, focused on the use of triflic anhydride, and the myriad of transformations that can ensue upon addition of several classes of electrophiles to the intermittently generated high energy intermediates.

Direct Observation of Intermediates Involved in the Interruption of the Bischler-Napieralski Reaction

The first mechanistic investigation of electrophilic amide activation of α,α-disubstituted tertiary lactams and the direct observation of key intermediates by in situ FTIR, (1)H, (13)C, and (19)F NMR in our interrupted Bischler-Napieralski-based synthetic strategy to the aspidosperma alkaloids, including a complex tetracyclic diiminium ion, is discussed. The reactivity of a wide range of pyridines with trifluoromethanesulfonic anhydride was systematically examined, and characteristic IR absorption bands for the corresponding N-trifluoromethanesulfonylated pyridinium trifluoromethanesulfonates were assigned. The reversible formation of diiminium ether intermediates was studied, providing insight into divergent mechanistic pathways as a function of the steric environment of the amide substrate and stoichiometry of reagents. Importantly, when considering base additives during electrophilic amide activation, more hindered α-quaternary tertiary lactams require the use of non-nucleophilic pyridine additives in order to avoid deactivation via a competing desulfonylation reaction. The isolation and full characterization of a tetracyclic iminium trifluoromethanesulfonate provided additional correlation between in situ characterization of sensitive intermediates and isolable compounds involved in this synthetic transformation.

One-pot synthesis of 3,4,5-trisubstituted 1,2,4-triazoles via the addition of hydrazides to activated secondary amides

A general approach has been developed for the one-pot synthesis of 3,4,5-trisubstituted 1,2,4-triazoles from secondary amides and hydrazides via triflic anhydride activation followed by microwave-induced cyclodehydration. In addition, the 1,2,4-triazole moiety is shown to be a useful directing group for Ru-catalyzed C-H arylation. Access to 1,2,4-triazolophenanthridine can be achieved from the reaction products using a Pd-catalyzed intramolecular C-H functionalization reaction.

Double-addition reaction of aryl methyl sulfones with N-tert-butylsulfinyl imines: diastereoselective and concise synthesis of 2-sulfonylated 1,3-diamines

We report a double-addition reaction of methyl phenyl sulfone and methyl 2-pyridyl sulfone with N-tert-butylsulfinyl imines. This method provides concise access to 2-sulfonylated 1,3-anti diamines with good to excellent diastereoselectivities. This protocol has the benefit of using readily accessible starting materials and is operationally simple.

Silver triflate and triflic anhydride-promoted expedient synthesis of acylated 1-aminoisoquinolines

A practical and convergent synthesis of biologically active 1-(N-acyl)-1-aminoisoquinolines from the reaction of 2-alkynylbenzaldoximes with amides has been realized. The readily available amides could be activated with triflic anhydride (Tf2O) and could efficiently participate in the domino reaction of 2-alkynylbenzaldoximes when catalyzed by AgOTf, thus providing various acylated 1-aminoisoquinolines with up to 98% yields.

One-pot pseudo three-component reaction of nitroketene-N,S-acetals and aldehydes for synthesis of highly functionalized hexa-substituted 1,4-dihydropyridines

Pseudo three-component condensation of aliphatic/aromatic/α,β-unsaturated aldehydes and nitroketene-N,S-acetals to afford diversely functionalized hexa-substituted 1,4-dihydropyridines under 2-aminopyridine catalysis was achieved.

Electrophilic rearrangements of chiral amides: a traceless asymmetric α-allylation

A one-pot protocol for the asymmetric α-allylation reaction is reported relying on a key efficient asymmetric Claisen rearrangement, triggered by electrophilic activation of chiral pseudoephedrine amides. Subsequent reduction or hydrolysis of the resulting iminium ions provides highly enantioenriched α-allylic aldehydes or carboxylic acids in a traceless manner. Compared to traditional alternatives which make use of strongly basic conditions, the work presented herein displays unprecedented functional group tolerance.

N-Alkylpyridinium isotope quaternization for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization Fourier transform mass spectrometric analysis of cholesterol and fatty alcohols in human hair

Isotope-coded reagents have been developed for labeling of amino acids, phenols and fatty acids, but not for alcohols. In this work, a simple reaction based on direct N-alkylpyridinium isotope quaternization (NAPIQ) was developed for mild derivatization of cholesterol and fatty alcohols. Different from the conventional quaternary reagents with cations on themselves, two simple and charge-neutral reagents: pyridine and d(5)-pyridine directly attached N-cationic tag onto the target compounds in the presence of trifluoromethanesulfonic anhydride (Tf(2)O) without tedious sample preparation. The derivatization completed in 5 min and achieved charge labeling of the target compounds, which significantly improved the detection limits of analytes by 10(3)-folds in further analysis by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization Fourier transform mass spectrometry (MALDI-FTMS). The use of commercially available d(0)/d(5)-pyridine pairs facilitated isotope-coded chemical derivatization and avoided the use of isotope-labeled internal standards; the excess pyridine did not affect the signals of analytes. Utility of the NAPIQ method was examined in the identification of cholesterol and fatty alcohols in small amount of human hair sample (<0.5mg). The fluctuation of total cholesterol in human body was profiled during time by quantitatively comparing the different segments of a single strand of hair. This study combines the direct pyridinium quaternization with MALDI-FTMS, which offers a perspective and an alternative tool for the identification and quantification of substances in biological matrix by comparing d(0)/d(5) pairs, especially when isotope-labeled internal standards are unavailable.

Stereoselective syntheses of L-pipecolic acid and (2S,3S)-3-hydroxypipecolic acid from a chiral N-imino-2-phenyl-1,2-dihydropyridine intermediate

Stereoselective syntheses of L-pipecolic acid and (2S,3S)-3-hydroxypipecolic acid were achieved from a chiral N-imino-2-phenyl-1,2-dihydropyridine intermediate. The 3-hydroxy substituent of the latter amino acid was introduced by hetero-Diels-Alder reaction of singlet oxygen with the 1,2-dihydropyridine.

Amidine dications as superelectrophiles

2-Dimethylalkylammonium pyridinium and 2-dimethylalkylammonium pyrimidinium ditriflate salts are very powerful methylating agents toward phosphorus (triphenylphosphine) and nitrogen (triethylamine) nucleophiles. In competition experiments with triethylamine as nucleophile, these N-methyl disalts are more reactive methylating agents than dimethyl sulfate. Reaction of the pyridinium dications with water as an oxygen nucleophile leads to attack at the 2-position of the heteroaromatic ring and displacement of an ammonium group; 2-hydroxypyridinium compounds are formed in the first instance, which are easily converted to 2-pyridones. Extending the scope of the reactions, a tricationic 2,6-bis(dimethylalkylammonium)pyridinium salt has also been prepared and characterized and its reactivity as a methylating agent assessed in comparison with that of the dications.