Two-carbon homologation of aldehydes and ketones to α,β-unsaturated aldehydes

One Step Selective Counterion Dependent Formation of Conjugated Chiral N-Sulfinylimines from Aldehydes

We report a detailed study on the synthesis and aldehyde vinylogation applications of chiral N-sulfinyl imine phosphonate reagents. Two complementary scalable reagent routes, from trialkyl phosphites and methyl phosphonates, respectively, are presented. This reagent class enables significant streamlining in synthesis of conjugated Ellman imines from aldehydes, which can now be accomplished in a single step compared to a more classic 4-step redox-based approach. Aldehyde vinylogation optimizations have revealed significant counterion effects and unexpected competing reaction challenges that needed to be addressed to achieve high yields.

The Advantage of Automatic Peer-Reviewing of 13C-NMR Reference Data Using the CSEARCH-Protocol

A systematic investigation of the experimental ¹³C-NMR spectra published in Molecules during the period of 1996 to 2015 with respect to their quality using CSEARCH-technology is described. It is shown that the systematic application of the CSEARCH-Robot-Referee during the peer-reviewing process prohibits at least the most trivial assignment errors and wrong structure proposals. In many cases, the correction of the assignments/chemical shift values is possible by manual inspection of the published tables; in certain cases, reprocessing of the original experimental data might help to clarify the situation, showing the urgent need for a public domain repository. A comparison of the significant key numbers derived for Molecules against those of other important journals in the field of natural product chemistry shows a quite similar level of quality for all publishers responsible for the six journals under investigation. From the results of this study, general rules for data handling, data storage, and manuscript preparation can be derived, helping to increase the quality of published NMR-data and making these data available as validated reference material.

One-Pot Preparation of (E)-α,β-Unsaturated Aldehydes by a Julia-Kocienski Reaction of 2,2-Dimethoxyethyl PT Sulfone Followed by Acid Hydrolysis

(E)-α,β-Unsaturated aldehydes were synthesized by the Julia-Kocienski reaction of 2,2-dimethoxyethyl 1-phenyl-1H-tetrazol-5-yl (PT) sulfone 3 with various aldehydes, followed by acid hydrolysis. The reaction could be carried out in one pot, and various (E)-α,β-unsaturated aldehydes were obtained in a short time and with high yields.

One and Two-Carbon Homologation of Primary and Secondary Alcohols to Corresponding Carboxylic Esters Using β-Carbonyl BT Sulfones as a Common Intermediate

Herein we report the efficient one- and two-carbon homologation of 1° and 2° alcohols to their corresponding homologated esters via the Mitsunobu reaction using β-carbonyl benzothiazole (BT) sulfone intermediates. The one-carbon homologation approach uses standard Mitsunobu C-S bond formation, oxidation and subsequent alkylation, while the two-carbon homologation uses a less common C-C bond forming Mitsunobu reaction. In this latter case, the use of β-BT sulfone bearing esters lowers the p K_a sufficiently enough for the substrate to be used as a carbon-based nucleophile and deliver the homologated β-BT sulfone ester, and this superfluous sulfone group can then be cleaved. In this paper we describe several methods for the effective desulfonylation of BT sulfones and have developed methodology for one-pot alkylation-desulfonylation sequences. As such, overall, a one-carbon homologation sequence can be achieved in a two-pot (four step) procedure and the two-carbon homologation in a two-pot (three step) procedure (three-pot; four step when C-acid synthesis is included). This methodology has been applied to a wide variety of functionality (esters, silyl ethers, benzyls, heteroaryls, ketones, olefins and alkynes) and are all tolerated well providing good to very good overall yields. The power of our method was demonstrated in site-selective ingenol C20 allylic alcohol two-carbon homologation.

DualPhos: a versatile, chemoselective reagent for two-carbon aldehyde to latent (E)-alkenal homologation and application in the total synthesis of phomolide G

Advances on the use of the 2-pinacolacetal-tripropylphosphonium salt DualPhos as a general reagent for the two-carbon aldehyde to alkenal homologation and a chemoselective iron (III) chloride mediated deprotection are described. The strategy allows isolation of the latent alkenal intermediates or direct hydrolysis to (E)-alkenals. The robust chemical stability of the latent alkenals is demonstrated in a total synthesis of the macrolactone phomolide G.

Ruthenium-catalysed Z-selective cross metathesis of allylic-substituted olefins

The Z-selective cross metathesis of allylic-substituted olefins is explored with recently developed ruthenium-based metathesis catalysts. The reaction proceeds with excellent stereoselectivity for the Z-isomer (typically >95%) and yields of up to 88% for a variety of allylic substituents. This includes the first synthesis of Z-α,β-unsaturated acetals by cross metathesis and their elaboration to Z-α,β-unsaturated aldehydes. In addition, the reaction is tolerant of a variety of cross partners, varying in functionality and steric profile.