The Chiral Auxiliary N-1-(1′-Naphthyl)ethyl-O-tert-butylhydroxylamine: A Chiral Weinreb Amide Equivalent

The Application of Flow Chemistry for the Synthesis of Alkyl Sodium Compounds and Their Transformations with Weinreb Amides and Carboxylic Acids

Herein, we describe the application of a flow system for the generation of a soluble organo sodium compound and the transformation of this primary nucleophile with various Weinreb amides for the synthesis of alkyl-aryl ketones. Thereafter, the generation of secondary sodium intermediates, such as benzylic sodium nucleophiles or ortho-metalated sodium nucleophiles from various carbon pre-nucleophiles, is described. These transformations generated more complex ketones, and in this investigation the key aspect was to identify factors for the chemoselective and regioselective C-H deprotonation of concurring sites within the starting material. Finally, the direct synthesis of ketones from carboxylic acids and the organo sodium compound is described, revealing interesting aspects regarding the nucleophilicity and basicity of the alkyl sodium reagent.

HUG and SQUEEZE: using CRYSTALS to incorporate resonant scattering in the SQUEEZE structure-factor contributions to determine absolute structure

The resonant-scattering contributions to single-crystal X-ray diffraction data enable the absolute structure of crystalline materials to be determined. Crystal structures can be determined even if they contain considerably disordered regions because a correction is available via a discrete Fourier transform of the residual electron density to approximate the X-ray scattering from the disordered region. However, the corrected model cannot normally account for resonant scattering from atoms in the disordered region. Straightforward determination of absolute structure from crystals where the strongly resonantly scattering atoms are not resolved has therefore not been possible. Using an approximate resonant-scattering correction to the X-ray scattering from the disordered regions, we have developed and tested a procedure (HUG) to recover the absolute structure using conventional Flack x refinement or other post-refinement determination methods. Results show that in favourable cases the HUG method works well and the absolute structure can be correctly determined. It offers no useful improvement in cases where the original correction for the disordered region scattering density is problematic, for example, when a large fraction of the scattering density in the crystal is disordered, or when voids are not occupied equally by the disordered species. Crucially, however, if the approach does not work for a given structure, the statistics for the absolute structure measures are not improved, meaning it is unlikely to lead to misassignment of absolute structure.

Direct asymmetric syntheses of chiral aldehydes and ketones via N-acyl chiral auxiliary derivatives including chiral Weinreb amide equivalents

This article covers N-acyl chiral auxiliary-based approaches to the asymmetric synthesis of enantiopure aldehydes and ketones. The use of diastereoisomerically pure N-acyl derivatives of chiral auxiliaries (including chiral Weinreb amide equivalents) and their conversion to the corresponding enantiopure aldehydes and ketones in a single synthetic operation by treatment with a hydride reducing agent or an organometallic reagent, respectively, are highlighted.