Titanium-Catalyzed Hydrohydrazination with Monosubstituted Hydrazines: Catalyst Design, Synthesis, and Reactivity

Metal-Free, PPA-Mediated Fisher Indole Synthesis via Tandem Hydroamination-Cyclization Reaction between Simple Alkynes and Arylhydrazines

A new variant of Fisher indole synthesis involving Bronsted acid-catalyzed hydrohydrazination of unactivated terminal and internal acetylenes with arylhydrazines is reported. The use of polyphosphoric acid alone either as the reaction medium or in the presence of a co-solvent appears to provide the required balance for activating the C-C triple bond towards the nucleophilic attack of the hydrazine moiety without unrepairable reactivity loss of the latter due to competing amino group protonation. Additionally, the formal hydration of acetylenes to the corresponding ketones occurs under the same conditions, making it an alternative approach for generating carbonyl groups from alkynes.

External electric field: a new catalytic strategy for the anti-Markovnikov hydrohydrazination of parent hydrazine

The anti-Markovnikov hydroamination reaction is considered to be a particular challenge, and one of the reactants, parent hydrazine, is also regarded as a troubling reagent. In this study, we first studied the hydrohydrazination of parent hydrazine via an effective and green catalyst—external electric field (EEF). The calculation results demonstrated that the anti-Markovnikov and Markovnikov pathways are competitive when there was no catalyst. EEF oriented along the negative direction of the X axis (F_x) accelerated the anti-Markovnikov addition reaction. Moreover, it lowered the barrier height of the first step by 16.0 kcal mol⁻¹ (from 27.8 to 11.8 kcal mol⁻¹) when the field strength was 180 (×10⁻⁴) au. Under the same conditions, the Markovnikov reaction pathway was inhibited, which means that EEF achieved the specificity of hydrohydrazination. The solvents are favorable for the first step addition reaction, particularly the synergy between solvents and F_x lowered the barrier heights by 8.3 (C₆H₆) and 10.7 (DMSO) kcal mol⁻¹ for an F_x = −60 (×10⁻⁴) au. Besides, the introduction of the electron-withdrawing substituent (trifluoromethyl) is also a good strategy to catalyze hydrohydrazination, while the electron-donating group (methoxy) is unfavorable.

The anti-Markovnikov hydrohydrazination of parent hydrazine were catalyzed by external electric field (EEF) to a large extent. Furthermore, the solvent effects and the substituent effects of the hydrohydrazination were enhanced in the presence of EEF.

Titanium catalysis for the synthesis of fine chemicals – development and trends

Atlas as a Titan(ium) is holding the earth-abundant chemistry world. Titanium is the second most abundant transition metal, is a key player in important industrial processes (e.g. polyethylene) and shows much promise for diverse applications in the future.

N,N-Dimethylformamide-stabilized palladium nanoclusters as a catalyst for Larock indole synthesis

We show that N,N-dimethylformamide-stabilized Pd nanoclusters (NCs) have high catalytic activity in the reaction of substituted 2-iodoanilines with alkynes to give 2,3-disubstituted indoles. This indole synthesis does not require phosphine ligands and proceeds with low Pd catalyst loadings. The Pd NCs were separated from the mixture after the reaction, and recycled at least three times. Transmission electron microscopy images showed that the Pd particle size before the reaction was 1.5–2.5 nm. The particle size after the reaction was 2–3 nm. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed that the binding energy of the Pd NCs before the reaction was 335.0 eV.

Pd NCs serve recyclable and highly active catalyst to indole synthesis.

Differences between the elimination of early and late transition metals: DFT mechanistic insights into the titanium-catalyzed synthesis of pyrroles from alkynes and diazenes

Early transition metals (TMs), such as titanium, generally resist undergoing reductive elimination to form C-X bonds due to their weak electronegativity. By analyzing the mechanism of the titanium-catalyzed synthesis of pyrroles from alkynes and diazenes, the present study revealed that titanium is able to promote C-N bond formation via an unconventional elimination pathway, passing through a comparatively stable masked Ti^II complex (i.e., IM4) rather than pyrrole directly. The formation of IM4 originates from the bilateral donation and back-donation between Ti and the pyrrole ligand. Formally, it could be considered that the two electrons resulting from the unconventional reductive elimination are temporarily buffered by back-donation to a symmetry-allowed unoccupied π-orbital of the pyrrole ring in IM4 rather than becoming a lone pair on a Ti center as adopted in the catalysis of late TMs. Because of its stability, IM4 requires additional oxidation by diazene to liberate pyrrole. The triplet counterpart (IM4^T ) of IM4 is more stable than IM4, but the elimination is unlikely to reach IM4^T , because the process is spin-forbidden and the spin-orbit coupling is weak. Alternatively, one may consider the forming pyrrole in IM4 as a redox-active ligand, reserving the two electrons resulting from the formal reductive elimination and then releasing the electrons when IM4 is oxidized by diazene. These insights allow us to propose the conditions for early TMs to undergo a similar elimination, whereby the forming product will have symmetry-allowed frontier molecular orbitals to form donation and back-donation bonding with a TM center and a substrate possessing a comparatively strong oxidizing ability to oxidize an IM4-like intermediate for product release. These insights may provide another way of constructing C-X bonds through a similar reductive elimination pathway, using early TM catalysts.

Titanium-catalyzed multicomponent couplings: efficient one-pot syntheses of nitrogen heterocycles

Nitrogen-based heterocycles are important frameworks for pharmaceuticals, natural products, organic dyes for solar cells, and many other applications. Catalysis for the formation of heterocyclic scaffolds, like many C-C and C-N bond-forming reactions, has focused on the use of rare, late transition metals like palladium and gold. Our group is interested in the use of Earth-abundant catalysts based on titanium to generate heterocycles using multicomponent coupling strategies, often in one-pot reactions. To be of maximal utility, the catalysts need to be easily prepared from inexpensive reagents, and that has been one guiding principle in the research. For this purpose, a series of easily prepared pyrrole-based ligands has been developed. Titanium imido complexes are known to catalyze the hydroamination of alkynes, and this reaction has been used to advantage in the production of α,β-unsaturated imines from 1,3-enynes and pyrroles from 1,4-diynes. Likewise, catalyst design can be used to find complexes applicable to hydrohydrazination, coupling of a hydrazine and alkyne, which is a method for the production of hydrazones. Many of the hydrazones synthesized are converted to indoles through Fischer cyclization by addition of a Lewis acid. However, more complex products are available in a single catalytic cycle through coupling of isonitriles, primary amines, and alkynes to give tautomers of 1,3-diimines, iminoamination (IA). The products of IA are useful intermediates for the one-pot synthesis of pyrazoles, pyrimidines, isoxazoles, quinolines, and 2-amino-3-cyanopyridines. The regioselectivity of the reactions is elucidated in some detail for some of these heterocycles. The 2-amino-3-cyanopyridines are synthesized through isolable intermediates, 1,2-dihydro-2-iminopyridines, which undergo Dimroth rearrangement driven by aromatization of the pyridine ring; the proposed mechanism of the reaction is discussed. The IA-based heterocyclic syntheses can be accomplished start to finish (catalyst generation to heterocyclic synthesis) in a single vessel. The catalyst can be formed in situ from commercially available Ti(NMe2)4 and the protonated form of the ligand. Then, the primary amine, alkyne, and isonitrile are added to the flask, and the IA product is synthesized. The volatiles are removed (if necessary), and the next reagent is added. A brief video showing the process for the simple heterocycle 4-phenylpyrazole from phenylacetylene, cyclohexylamine, tert-butylisonitrile, and hydrazine hydrate is included. Further development in this field will unlock new, efficient reactions for the production of carbon-carbon and carbon-nitrogen bonds. As an example of such a process recently discovered, a catalyst for the regioselective production of pyrazoles in a single step from terminal alkynes, hydrazines, and cyclohexylisonitrile is discussed. Using titanium catalysis, many heterocyclic cores can be accessed easily and efficiently. Further, the early metal chemistry described is often orthogonal to late metal-based reactions, which use substrates like aryl halides, silyl groups, boryl groups, and so forth. As a result, earth-abundant and nontoxic titanium can fulfill important roles in the synthesis of useful classes of compounds like heterocycles.

Metal-free synthesis of 3,5-disubstituted 1H- and 1-aryl-1H-pyrazoles from 1,3-diyne-indole derivatives employing two successive hydroaminations

The uncatalyzed synthesis of 3,5-disubstituted 1H- and 1-aryl-1H-pyrazoles derived from 1,3-diyne indoles was successfully carried out in PEG 400. The scope and limitations of the reaction were studied.

Room-temperature hydrohydrazination of terminal alkynes catalyzed by saturated abnormal N-heterocyclic carbene-gold(I) complexes

A number of saturated abnormal N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) complexes of gold, in combination with KBAr(F) 4 as activator, were successfully applied in the chemoselective addition of hydrazine to alkynes. The reaction proceeds even at room temperature, which was not possible to date with gold catalysts. The reaction can be applied to a number of substituted arylalkynes. With alkylalkynes the yields are low. The saturated abnormal NHC ligands are resistant to isomerization to the saturated normal NHC coordination mode under basic reaction conditions. Under acidic conditions, a simple protonation at the nitrogen atom not neighboring the carbene center was observed and unambiguously characterized by an X-ray crystal-structure analysis. Computational studies confirm that such an isomerization would be highly exothermic, the observed kinetic stability probably results from the need to shift two protons in such a process.