Organic Chemistry and Synthesis Rely More and More upon Catalysts

A few months before the COVID-19 pandemic, Pierre Vogel and Kendall N. Houk published with a new textbook Wiley-VCH, “Organic Chemistry: Theory, Reactivity, and Mechanisms in Modern Synthesis”, with a foreword from the late Roberts H. Grubbs. The book demonstrates how catalytic processes dominate all fields of modern organic chemistry and synthesis, and how invention combines thermodynamics, kinetics, spectroscopy, quantum mechanics, and thermochemical data libraries. Here, the authors present a few case studies that should be of interest to teachers, practitioners of organic and organometallic chemistry, and the engineers of molecules. The Vogel–Houk book is both textbook and reference manual; it provides a modern way to think about chemical reactivity and a powerful toolbox to inventors of new reactions and new procedures.

N-Arylphenothiazines as strong donors for photoredox catalysis - pushing the frontiers of nucleophilic addition of alcohols to alkenes

A new range of N-phenylphenothiazine derivatives was synthesized as potential photoredox catalysts to broaden the substrate scope for the nucleophilic addition of methanol to styrenes through photoredox catalysis. These N-phenylphenothiazines differ by their electron-donating and electron-withdrawing substituents at the phenyl group, covering both, σ and π-type groups, in order to modulate their absorbance and electrochemical characteristics. Among the synthesized compounds, alkylaminylated N-phenylphenothiazines were identified to be highly suitable for photoredox catalysis. The dialkylamino substituents of these N-phenylphenothiazines shift the estimated excited state reduction potential up to -3.0 V (vs SCE). These highly reducing properties allow the addition of methanol to α-methylstyrene as less-activated substrate for this type of reaction. Without the help of an additive, the reaction conditions were optimized to achieve a quantitative yield for the Markovnivkov-type addition product after 20 h of irradiation.

New insight into the polymerization mechanism of 1,3-dienes cationic polymerization. IV. Mechanism of unsaturation loss in the polymerization of isoprene

The mechanism of obtaining a polymer with reduced unsaturation is proposed, which includes the formation of branched structures.