Catalytic insertion of aldehydes into dihalonitroacetophenones via sequential bond scission-aldol reaction-acyl transfer

Enantioseparation and racemization of 3-fluorooxindoles

Fluorinated oxindoles are frequently used building blocks in asymmetric synthesis and represent an important scaffold found in a variety of biologically relevant compounds. While it is understood that incorporation of fluorine atoms into organic molecules can improve their pharmacological properties, the impact on the configurational stability of chiral organofluorines is still underexplored. In this study, semipreparative HPLC enantioseparations of five oxindoles were carried out, and the resulting enantiomerically enriched solutions were used to investigate base promoted racemization kinetics at room temperature. It was found that incorporation of fluorine at the chiral center increases the configurational stability, while substitutions on the aromatic ring and at the lactam moiety also have significant effects on the rate of racemization, which generally follows reversible first-order reaction kinetics.

Selective Csp3-F Bond Functionalization with Lithium Iodide

A highly efficient method for C-F bond functionalization of a broad variety of activated and unactivated aliphatic substrates with inexpensive lithium iodide is presented. Primary, secondary, tertiary, benzylic, propargylic and α-functionalized alkyl fluorides react in chlorinated or aromatic solvents at room temperature or upon heating to the corresponding iodides which are isolated in 91-99% yield. The reaction is selective for aliphatic monofluorides and can be coupled with in situ nucleophilic iodide replacements to install carbon-carbon, carbon-nitrogen and carbon-sulfur bonds with high yields. Alkyl difluorides, trifluorides, even in activated benzylic positions, are inert under the same conditions and aryl fluoride bonds are also tolerated.

Organocatalytic difluorobenzylation of 1,2-diketones via mild cleavage of carbon–carbon bonds

Difluoroacetophenones (DFAPs) are developed as a class of novel and practical reagents for organocatalytic difluorobenzylation reactions.

Palladium and Nickel Catalyzed Suzuki Cross-Coupling with Alkyl Fluorides

Suzuki cross-coupling of benzylic and unactivated aliphatic fluorides with aryl- and alkenylboronic acids has been achieved via mechanistically distinct Pd and Ni catalyzed pathways that outperform competing protodeboronation, β-hydride elimination, and homocoupling processes. The utility is demonstrated with more than 20 examples including heterocyclic structures, 1,1-disubstituted and trans-1,2-disubstituted alkenes, and by the incorporation of acetonitrile into functionalized (hetero)arenes.

Enantioseparation and racemization of α-aryl-α-fluoroacetonitriles

The 2-Aryl-2-fluoroacetonitriles have garnered increasing interest as versatile building blocks in asymmetric synthesis. However, the configurational stability of these organofluorines is poorly understood and analytical methods that can be used to differentiate between their enantiomers remain underdeveloped. In this study, baseline high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) enantioseparation of ten 2-aryl-2-fluoroacetonitriles was achieved by screening frequently used chiral stationary phases. While Chiralcel OD, Chiralpak AD, and Chiralpak AS proved to be most broadly useful, preparative separation of the enantiomers of 2-(2-naphthyl)-2-fluoroacetonitrile was possible on Chiralcel OJ. This enabled racemization studies at various temperatures and in the presence of organic bases which showed that this compound is configurationally stable under neutral conditions upon heating to 130°C for 6 h but undergoes complete racemization within 10 h in the presence of stoichiometric amounts of a guanidine base at room temperature. The racemization is likely to proceed via formation of an achiral keteniminate intermediate and obeys reversible first-order reaction kinetics with a half-life time of 87.7 min in ethanolic hexanes at 23.2°C. Racemization is significantly slower and occurs with a half-life time of 23.1 h at 22.4°C when the guanidine is replaced with a weaker amidine base.

Acetyl nitrate mediated conversion of methyl ketones to diverse carboxylic acid derivatives

The development of a novel acetyl nitrate mediated oxidative conversion of methyl ketones to carboxylic acid derivatives is described. By analogy to the haloform reaction and supported by experimental and computational investigation we propose a mechanism for this transformation.

Difluoroisoxazolacetophenone: A Difluoroalkylation Reagent for Organocatalytic Vinylogous Nitroaldol Reactions of 1,2-Diketones

Difluoroisoxazolacetophenone (DFIO) is developed as a new difluoroalkylation reagent that can be easily prepared from inexpensive starting materials. In situ remote C-C bond cleavage of DFIO affords γ,γ-difluoroisoxazole nitronate that undergoes base-catalyzed vinylogous nitroaldol additions to isatins, benzothiophene-2,3-dione, unsaturated-α-ketoesters, and cyclic 1,2-diketones. This organocatalytic debenzoate vinylogous nitroaldol reaction provides a new and mild approach for the preparation of various difluoroisoxazole-substituted 3-hydroxy-2-oxindoles.

Employment of α-nitroketones in organic synthesis

This review summarizes the recent developments of the reactions of α-nitroketones and the consequent formation of a variety of structural frameworks is discussed.

Direct dihalo-alkoxylation of nitroalkenes leading to β,β-dihalo-β-nitroethyl alkyl ethers

A highly efficient one-pot synthesis of β,β-dihalo-β-nitroethyl alkyl ethers is achieved by the treatment of nitroalkenes with alcohols and N-halosuccinimides in the presence of sodium hydride. The notable advantages of this protocol are that it involves simple experimental manipulations and tolerates a wide range of functional groups. Further transformations of the obtained ethers, such as allylation and conversion to β,β-dihalogenated vinyl ethers, are also investigated.

Catalytic asymmetric aldol addition reactions of 3-fluoro-indolinone derived enolates

Reported herein is a Cu(i)/bisoxazoline ligand-catalyzed aldol reaction of unprotected tertiary enolates generated in situ from 3-(1,1-dihydroxy-2,2,2-trifluoroethyl)-substituted derivatives of 3-fluoro-2-oxindoles. A range of α-fluoro-β-aryl/hetaryl/alkyl-β-hydroxy-indolin-2-ones containing C-F quaternary stereogenic centers of high pharmaceutical importance were furnished in good yields and satisfactory diastereo- and enantioselectivities. The reactions were conducted under operationally convenient conditions and displayed wide substrate/functional group generality including unprotected N-H on the tertiary enolates, and aromatic, hetero-aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes.

Organocatalytic Stereoselective Synthesis of Fluorinated 3,3'-Linked Bisoxindoles

A highly diastereoselective organocatalytic method that produces 3-fluoro-3'-hydroxy-3,3'-bisoxindoles and the corresponding 3-fluoro-3'-amino derivatives having two adjacent chirality centers from fluorooxindoles and isatins in high yields is described. The reaction occurs in protic solvents at room temperature, it can be upscaled without compromising yield and stereoselectivity, and chromatographic product purification is not required.

Theoretical Study on DBU-Catalyzed Insertion of Isatins into Aryl Difluoronitromethyl Ketones: A Case for Predicting Chemoselectivity Using Electrophilic Parr Function

The possible mechanisms of 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU)-catalyzed chemoselective insertion of N-methyl isatin into aryl difluoronitromethyl ketone to synthesize 3,3-disubstituted and 2,2-disubstituted oxindoles have been studied in this work. As revealed by calculated results, the reaction occurs via two competing paths, including α and β carbonyl paths, and each path contains five steps, that is, nucleophilic addition of DBU to ketone, C-C bond cleavage affording difluoromethylnitrate anion and phenylcarbonyl-DBU cation, nucleophilic addition of difluoromethylnitrate anion to carbonyl carbon of N-methyl isatin, acyl transfer process, and dissociation of DBU and product. The computational results suggest that nucleophilic additions on different carbonyl carbons of N-methyl isatin via α and β carbonyl paths would lead to different products in the third step, and β carbonyl path associated with the main product 3,3-disubstituted oxindole is more energetically favorable, which is consistent with the experimental observations. Noteworthy, electrophilic Parr function can be successfully applied for exactly predicting the activity of reaction site and reasonably explaining the chemoselectivity. In addition, the distortion/interaction and noncovalent interaction analyses show that much more hydrogen bond interactions should be responsible for the lower energy of the transition state associated with β carbonyl path. The obtained insights would be valuable for the rational design of efficient organocatalysts for this kind of reactions with high selectivities.

Organocatalytic Insertion of Isatins into Aryl Difluoronitromethyl Ketones

An organocatalytic method that achieves insertion of isatins into aryl difluoronitromethyl ketones under mild conditions is described. The reaction occurs in the presence of 20 mol % of DBU and with 100% atom economy. A series of isatin derived difluoronitromethyl substituted tertiary alcohol benzoates and naphthoates were prepared in 81-99% yield. The general synthetic usefulness of these 3-hydroxyoxindole derivatives is demonstrated with the selective reduction to fluorooximes.

Detrifluoroacetylative in Situ Generation of Free 3-Fluoroindolin-2-one-Derived Tertiary Enolates: Design, Synthesis, and Assessment of Reactivity toward Asymmetric Mannich Reactions

The discovery of detrifluoroacetylative in situ generation of a new type of fluorinated amide enolates derived from 3-fluoroindolin-2-one and their asymmetric Mannich additions with sulfinylaldimines bearing fluoroalkyl groups is reported, which afforded α-fluoro-β-(fluoroalkyl)-β-aminoindolin-2-ones containing C-F quaternary stereogenic centers with excellent yields and high diastereoselectivities.