Strategic Advances in Sequential C-Arylations of Heteroarenes

Sequence-specific C-arylation strategies have important applications in medicinal and material research. These strategies allow C-C bond formations in a regioselective manner to synthesize large molecular libraries for studying structure-activity profiles. The past decade has seen the development of single C-C bond forming reactions using various transition-metal catalysts, cryogenic metalation strategies, and metal-free methods. Sequential arylations of heterocycles allow for the formation of multiaryl derivatives and are a preferred choice over de novo synthetic routes. This perspective sheds light on recent strategic advances to develop various sequential synthetic routes for the multiarylation of heteroarenes. This perspective addresses many challenges in optimizing sequential routes with respect to catalysts, reaction parameters, and various strategies adopted to obtain diversely arylated products.

Effective Tools for the Metal-Catalyzed Regiodivergent Direct Arylations of (Hetero)arenes

The direct functionalization of two different C-H bonds of the same organic molecule using different procedures - also called regiodivergent C-H bond functionalization - currently represents an important research topic in organic chemistry, as it demonstrates the versatility of C-H bond functionalization methodology. Over the last decade, the number of tools to control such regiodivergent C-H bond functionalizations has increased significantly. In this account, we will present the various tools that allowed us to arylate different positions of various (hetero)arenes, via a C-H bond functionalization, using palladium or ruthenium catalysis.

Transition-metal-catalyzed C–H functionalization of pyrazoles

This review describes recent advances in transition-metal-catalyzed C–H functionalization reactions of pyrazoles to form new C–C and C–heteroatom bonds on the pyrazole ring.

Polysubstituted 3-trifluoromethylpyrazoles: regioselective (3 + 2)-cycloaddition of trifluoroacetonitrile imines with enol ethers and functional group transformations

Non-catalysed addition of trifluoroacetonitrile imines to enol ethers provided fully regioselectively (3 + 2)-cycloadducts, which either spontaneously or via Brønsted acid-induced elimination of ROH molecules led to the formation of 3-trifluoromethylated pyrazoles. In the case of 2,3-dihydrofuran, the respective bicyclic intermediate was isolated and its structure was confirmed by X-ray analysis. Using the developed protocol the synthesis of a known antitumor compound SC-560 was performed in 45% yield. Subsequent functionalisations of selected 4-(ω-hydroxyalkyl)pyrazoles at C(5) through lithiation/addition, cross-coupling reactions or via intramolecular Pd-catalysed C-H arylations opened up an access to polysubstituted pyrazoles including unusual tricyclic systems comprising 7-membered rings (oxepane, thiepane and azepane) as the central unit.

Discovery of synthetic small molecules that enhance the number of stomata: C–H functionalization chemistry for plant biology

The first-in-class synthetic small molecules enhancing the number of stomata in Arabidopsis thaliana have been discovered.

Regioselectivity in palladium-catalysed direct arylation of 5-membered ring heteroaromatics

In the past few years, several results using modified catalysts and new reaction conditions have been reported permitting better control of the regioselectivity of Pd-catalysed arylations.