Activating group recycling in action: a rhodium-catalyzed carbothiolation route to substituted isoquinolines

Pyrrolo[2,1-a]isoquinoline scaffolds for developing anti-cancer agents

Fused pyrrolo[2,1-a]isoquinolines have emerged as compelling molecules with remarkably potent cytotoxic activity and topoisomerase inhibitors. This comprehensive review delves into the intricate world of this family of compounds, analyzing the natural marine lamellarins known for their diverse and complex chemical structures, exploring structure-activity relationships (SARs), and highlighting their remarkable versatility. The review emphasizes their fundamental role as topoisomerase inhibitors and cytotoxic agents, as well as some crucial aspects of the chemistry of pyrrolo[2,1-a]isoquinolines, exploring synthetic strategies in total synthesis and molecular diversification trends, highlighting their importance in the field of medicinal chemistry and beyond.

Recent Developments on Processes for Recovery of Rhodium Metal from Spent Catalysts

Rhodium (Rh) catalyst has played an indispensable role in many important industrial and technological applications due to its unique and valuable properties. Currently, Rh is considered as a strategic or critical metal as the scarce high-quality purity can only be supplemented by refining coarse ores with low content (2–10 ppm) and is far from meeting the fast-growing market demand. Nowadays, exploring new prospects has already become an urgent issue because of the gradual depletion of Rh resources, incidental pressure on environmental protection, and high market prices. Since waste catalyst materials, industrial equipment, and electronic instruments contain Rh with a higher concentration than that of natural minerals, recovering Rh from scrap not only offers an additional source to satisfy market demand but also reduces the risk of ore over-exploitation. Therefore, the recovery of Rh-based catalysts from scrap is of great significance. This review provides an overview of the Rh metal recovery from spent catalysts. The characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of several current recovery processes, including pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, and biosorption technology, are presented and compared. Among them, the hydrometallurgical process is commonly used for Rh recovery from auto catalysts due to its technological simplicity, low cost, and short processing time, but the overall recovery rate is low due to its high remnant Rh within the insoluble residue and the unstable leaching. In contrast, higher Rh recovery and less effluent discharge can be ensured by a pyrometallurgical process which therefore is widely employed in industry to extract precious metals from spent catalysts. However, the related procedure is quite complex, leading to an expensive hardware investment, high energy consumption, long recovery cycles, and inevitable difficulties in controlling contamination in practice. Compared to conventional recovery methods, the biosorption process is considered to be a cost-effective biological route for Rh recovery owing to its intrinsic merits, e.g., low operation costs, small volume, and low amount of chemicals and biological sludge to be treated. Finally, we summarize the challenges and prospect of these three recovery processes in the hope that the community can gain more meaningful and comprehensive insights into Rh recovery.

Free Amine-Directed Ru(II)-Catalyzed Redox-Neutral [4 + 2] C-H Activation/Annulation of Benzylamines with Sulfoxonium Ylides

An external oxidant free Ru(II)-catalyzed C-H functionalization/annulation of primary benzylamines with sulfoxonium ylides has been developed for the synthesis of isoquinolines. The reaction utilizes free amine as a directing group, which is generally considered to be a poor directing group. This work presents the first example of Ru-catalyzed C-H functionalization of benzylamines under redox-neutral conditions. The detection of the amine-directed ruthenacyclic intermediate using high-resolution mass spectrometry corroborated the involvement of free amine as a directing group.

Diverse saturated heterocycles from a hydroacylation/conjugate addition cascade

Rhodium-catalyzed hydroacylation using alkynes substituted with pendant nucleophiles, delivers linear α,β-unsaturated enone intermediates with excellent regioselectivity. These adducts are used to construct a broad range of diversely substituted, saturated O-, N- and S-heterocycles in a one-pot process. Judicious choice of cyclisation conditions enabled isolation of O-heterocycles with high levels of diastereoselectivity. A variety of derivatisation reactions are also performed, generating functionalised hydroacylation products. This sequence serves as a general approach for the synthesis of fully saturated heterocycles.

Recyclable Gold Catalyst for the Stereoselective Thioallylation of Alkynes

The heterogeneous gold(I)-catalyzed stereoselective thioallylation of electron-deficient alkynes with allyl sulfides has been achieved by using an MCM-41-immobilized sterically demanding NHC-gold(I) complex [MCM-41-IPrAuNTf₂] as the catalyst under mild conditions, delivering a wide variety of stereodefined tri- and tetrasubstituted functionalized vinyl sulfides in good to excellent yields. The new heterogeneous MCM-41-IPrAuNTf₂ catalyst exhibits an activity comparable to a homogeneous IPrAuNTf₂ complex and can be recovered via a simple filtration process and reused for at least seven consecutive cycles without any apparent loss of its catalytic activity and selectivity.

Microwave-Assisted Palladium-Catalyzed Reductive Cyclization/Ring-Opening/Aromatization Cascade of Oxazolidines to Isoquinolines

An efficient palladium-catalyzed reaction of N-propargyl oxazolidines for the construction of 4-substituted isoquinolines under microwave irradiation is developed. This transformation proceeds through a sequential palladium-catalyzed reductive cyclization/ring-opening/aromatization cascade via C-O and C-N bond cleavages of the oxazolidine ring. The practical value of this method has also been explored by conducting a millimole-scale reaction, as well as by transforming the isoquinoline into a key intermediate for the synthesis of a lamellarin analogue.

Iridium-Catalyzed Enantioselective and Diastereoselective Hydrogenation of 1,3-Disubstituted Isoquinolines

The development of a general method utilizing a hydroxymethyl directing group for asymmetric hydrogenation of 1,3-disubstituted isoquinolines to provide chiral 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinolines is reported. The reaction, which utilizes [Ir(cod)Cl]₂ and a commercially available chiral xyliphos ligand, proceeds in good yield with high levels of enantioselectivity and diastereo-selectivity (up to 95% ee and >20:1 dr) on a range of differentially substituted isoquinolines. Directing group studies demonstrate that the hydroxymethyl functional group at the C1-position is more efficient at enabling hydrogenation than other substituents, although high levels of enantioselectivity were conserved across a variety of polar and non-polar functional groups. By utilizing the generated chiral β-amino alcohol as a functional handle, the synthetic utility is further highlighted via the synthesis of 1,2-fused oxazolidine, oxazolidinone, and morpholinone tetrahydroisoquinolines in one step. Additionally, a non-natural analog of the tetrahydroprotoberberine alkaloids was successfully synthesized.

A rhodium-catalysed Sonogashira-type coupling exploiting C-S functionalisation: orthogonality with palladium-catalysed variants

This report concerns the development of an efficient Sonogashira-type coupling of arylmethylsulfides and terminal alkynes to generate aryl alkyne motifs. Orthogonal reactivity between traditional Pd catalysts, and the Rh catalysts employed, results in the ability to selectively activate either the C-S bond or C-X bond through catalyst choice. The Rh-bisphosphine catalyst has further been shown to be able to effect a hydroacylation-Sonogashira tandem sequence, and in combination with further onward reactions has been used in the synthesis of heterocycles and polycyclic systems.

N-Tosylhydrazone directed annulation via C–H/N–N bond activation in Ru(ii)/PEG-400 as homogeneous recyclable catalytic system: a green synthesis of isoquinolines

A green and sustainable methodology for the synthesis of isoquinolines using Ru(ii)/PEG-400 as homogeneous recyclable catalytic system and N-tosylhydrazone, a rarely explored directing group has been reported.

Two-Component Assembly of Thiochroman-4-ones and Tetrahydrothiopyran-4-ones Using a Rhodium-Catalyzed Alkyne Hydroacylation/Thio-Conjugate-Addition Sequence

β'-Thio-substituted-enones, assembled from the combination of β-tert-butylthio-substituted aldehydes and alkynes, using rhodium catalysis, are shown to smoothly undergo in situ intramolecular S-conjugate addition to deliver a range of S-heterocycles in a one-pot process. Aryl, alkenyl, and alkyl aldehydes can all be employed, to provide thiochroman-4-ones, hexahydro-4H-thiochromen-4-ones, and tetrahydrothiopyran-4-ones, respectively. A variety of in situ oxidations are also performed, allowing access to S,S-dioxide derivatives, as well as unsaturated variants.

Direct Synthesis of Highly Substituted Pyrroles and Dihydropyrroles Using Linear Selective Hydroacylation Reactions

Rhodium(I) catalysts incorporating small bite-angle diphosphine ligands, such as (Cy2 P)2 NMe or bis(diphenylphosphino)methane (dppm), are effective at catalysing the union of aldehydes and propargylic amines to deliver the linear hydroacylation adducts in good yields and with high selectivities. In situ treatment of the hydroacylation adducts with p-TSA triggers a dehydrative cyclisation to provide the corresponding pyrroles. The use of allylic amines, in place of the propargylic substrates, delivers functionalised dihydropyrroles. The hydroacylation reactions can also be combined in a cascade process with a Rh(I) -catalysed Suzuki-type coupling employing aryl boronic acids, providing a three-component assembly of highly substituted pyrroles.

Homogeneous rhodium(i)-catalysis in de novo heterocycle syntheses

Rh(i)-catalysed reactions often employ mild reaction conditions and offer excellent functional group tolerance, making them ideal transformations for the preparation of complex molecules. This review surveys examples of these synthetically useful transformations as applied to the synthesis of various heterocycles.

Tandem Alkyne Hydroacylation and Oxo-Michael Addition: Diastereoselective Synthesis of 2,3-Disubstituted Chroman-4-ones and Fluorinated Derivatives

Tandem reactions involving Rh-catalyzed intermolecular hydroacylations of alkynes with salicylaldehydes followed by intramolecular oxo-Michael additions are described for the diastereoselective synthesis of 2,3-disubstituted chroman-4-ones. The tandem hydroacylation/oxo-Michael additions occur to form 2,3-disubstituted chroman-4-ones in high yields from a range of 1,2-disubstituted acetylenes and substituted salicylaldehyes. The resulting 2,3-disubstituted chroman-4-ones are readily fluorinated to form trans-3-fluoro-2,3-disubstituted chroman-4-ones in high yields with excellent diastereoselectivity.

Enantioselective hydroacylation of olefins with rhodium catalysts

Over thirty years ago, James and Young reported the first enantioselective olefin hydroacylation by using rhodium catalysts. This viewpoint highlights the advances in this area, including 4-pentenal cyclisations, medium-ring syntheses, and intermolecular variants.

An efficient synthesis of isoquinolines via rhodium-catalyzed direct C–H functionalization of arylhydrazines

Rhodium-catalyzed C–H bond activation of arylhydrazines and coupling with internal alkynes has been realized.

Nickel-catalysed synthesis of tetrasubstituted vinyl sulfides from thiocarbamates and internal alkynes

The thiocarbamoylation of internal alkynes to produce tetrasubstituted β-aminocarbonyl vinyl sulfides was demonstrated using a nickel catalyst. This reaction was successful with a wide variety of substituents, and gave the syn-adducts exclusively.

A room-temperature protocol to access isoquinolines through Ag(i) catalysed annulation of o-(1-alkynyl)arylaldehydes and ketones with NH4OAc: elaboration to berberine and palmatine

A silver catalysed protocol for the synthesis of a wide range of isoquinolines from o-(1-alkynyl)arylaldehydes has been developed under mild conditions and elaborated to the synthesis of berberine and palmatine.

Highly regioselective para-methylthiolation/bridging methylenation of arylamines promoted by NH4I

Aryl methyl thioethers and methylene-bridged arylamines were synthesized via highly regioselective para-methylthiolation/bridging methylenation of arylamines using DMSO as the methylthio or methylene source in the presence of NH₄I under metal-free conditions.

Isoquinoline synthesis by heterocyclization of tosylmethyl isocyanide derivatives: total synthesis of mansouramycin B

A new method for the synthesis of isoquinolines through a catalytic acid-mediated cyclization of α-benzyl TosMIC derivatives has been developed. This methodology has been successfully applied to the total synthesis of mansouramycin B. This is the first total synthesis of this compound to be reported in the literature.