Heterogeneous Versus Homogeneous Palladium Catalysts for Ligandless Mizoroki–Heck Reactions: A Comparison of Batch/Microwave and Continuous‐Flow Processing

Mizoroki–Heck couplings of aryl iodides and bromides with butyl acrylate were investigated as model systems to perform transition‐metal‐catalyzed transformations in continuous‐flow mode. As a suitable ligandless catalyst system for the Mizoroki–Heck couplings both heterogeneous and homogeneous Pd catalysts (Pd/C and Pd acetate) were considered. In batch mode, full conversion with excellent selectivity for coupling was achieved applying high‐temperature microwave conditions with Pd levels as low as 10^?3 mol %. In continuous‐flow mode with Pd/C as a catalyst, significant Pd leaching from the heterogeneous catalyst was observed as these Mizoroki–Heck couplings proceed by a homogeneous mechanism involving soluble Pd colloids/nanoparticles. By applying low levels of Pd acetate as homogeneous Pd precatalyst, successful continuous‐flow Mizoroki–Heck transformations were performed in a high‐temperature/pressure flow reactor. For both aryl iodides and bromides, high isolated product yields of the cinnamic esters were obtained. Mechanistic issues involving the Pd‐catalyzed Mizoroki–Heck reactions are discussed.     

Simple microwave‐assisted ligand‐free suzuki cross‐coupling: Functionalization of halo‐pyrimidine moieties

An advantageous ligand‐free protocol for Suzuki couplings is described. The synthetic procedure entails microwave irradiation for the reduction of the reaction times and the use of silica cartridges for the purification. Dihalo‐pyrimidine structures, interesting scaffolds in medicinal chemistry, were chosen as test compounds.     

Accelerated Heck reaction using ortho‐palladated complex with controlled microwave heating

Palladium‐catalyzed Heck couplings utilizing [Pd{C₆H₂(CH₂CH₂NH₂)‐(OMe)₂,3,4} (µ‐Br)]₂ palladacycle catalyst and microwave irradiation lead to formation of different coupling products. This complex is an active and efficient catalyst for the Heck reaction of aryl iodides, bromides and even less reactive chlorides. The cross‐coupled products were produced in excellent yields. The reaction time was reduced from hours to minutes and full conversion was achieved under microwave irradiation. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New P‐ligands: 3‐(ethyl‐phenylphosphinato‐) 1,2,3,6‐tetrahydro‐ and 1,2,3,4,5,6‐hexahydrophosphinine derivatives

The trimethylaluminum‐mediated Michael addition of ethyl phenyl‐H‐phosphinate to 1,2‐dihydrophosphinine oxides ( 1A ) yielded 3‐(EtOPhP(O))‐1,2,3,6‐tetrahydrophosphinine oxides ( 4 ) in a selective manner, as a mixture of only two diastereomers. In the above type of reactions (e.g., in that of 1Aa and Ph₂P(O)H), Me₃Al could not be substituted by microwave irradiation due to low efficiency. Catalytic hydrogenation of the Michael adducts ( 4 ) led to 3‐(EtOPhP(O)‐1,2,3,4,5,6‐hexahydrophosphinine oxides 5 , in the case of P‐phenyl substituent ( 5a ), as a mixture of only two diastereomers, while in the instance of the P‐ethoxy derivative ( 5b ), as a mixture of four isomers. Stereostructure of the products ( 5 ) was substantiated on the basis of analogies and stereospecific NMR couplings. The predominant conformations of compounds 4a , 4b , 5a , and 5b‐1 were determined by HF/6‐31G* calculations. Reduction of P(1)–Ph heterocycles 4a and 5a by phenylsilane resulted in monodeoxygenation to afford P‐ligands 6 and 8 , respectively, that were protected as the corresponding phosphine boranes ( 7 and 9 , respectively). © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 18:747–753, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/hc.20365     

Effect of pH on the rotational conformations of 1,3‐diamino‐2‐hydroxypropane

The effect of pH on the rotational conformations of 1,3‐diamino‐2‐hydroxypropane in aqueous solution was investigated by proton NMR. Both the observed chemical shifts and coupling constants were used to calculate experimental pK_a values. The observed couplings were correlated with the expected couplings for the various possible staggered conformations to try to determine the pattern of conformations for the diamine and its conjugate acids. The best fits suggested a modest preference for the gauche–gauche conformation, especially at low pH, where the diprotonated hydroxydiamine predominates. In methanol, dimethyl sulfoxide and trichloromethane solutions, it was only possible to evaluate the conformational equilibria of the diamine. Slow proton exchange, which caused uncertainties in both chemical shifts and couplings for the monoprotonated and unprotonated diamine, nullified efforts to determine whether or not hydrogen bonding was important for these species in less polar solvents. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stereochemical behavior of 77Se‐1H spin‐spin coupling constants in pyrazolyl‐1,3‐diselenanes and 1,2‐diselenolane

Conformational study of five derivatives of 2‐(pyrazol‐4‐yl)‐1,3‐diselenane together with related 1,2‐diselenolane in respect to the stereochemical trends of geminal and vicinal ⁷⁷Se‐¹H spin‐spin coupling constants has been carried out by means of high‐level theoretical calculations in combination with experiment. The marked dihedral angle dependences for both types of couplings accounted for the lone pair effect in the case of geminal coupling constants and the Karplus‐type relationship for vicinal couplings have been established, which is of major importance for the stereochemical analysis of saturated selenium containing heterocycles. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Microwave‐Assisted Polymer Synthesis: State‐of‐the‐Art and Future Perspectives

Summary: Monomodal microwaves have overcome the safety uncertainties associated with the precedent domestic microwave ovens. After fast acceptance in inorganic and organic syntheses, polymer chemists have also recently discovered this new kind of microwave reactor. An almost exponential increase of the number of publications in this field reflects the steadily growing interest in the use of microwave irradiation for polymerizations. This review introduces the microwave systems and their applications in polymer syntheses, covering step‐growth and ring‐opening, as well as radical polymerization processes, in order to summarize the hitherto realized polymerizations. Special attention is paid to the differences between microwave‐assisted and conventional heating as well as the “microwave effects”.

Results of search on number of publications on microwave‐assisted polymerizations, sorted by year.     

On DABAL-Me3 promoted formation of amides

The range and utility of DABAL-Me₃ couplings of methyl esters and free carboxylic acids with primary and secondary amines under a variety of conditions (reflux, sealed tube, microwave) has been compared for a significant range of coupling partners of relevance to the preparation of amides of interest in pharmaceutical chemistry. Commercial microwave reactors promote the fastest couplings and allow the use of significantly sterically hindered amines (primary and secondary) and carboxylic acids derivatives. The influence of microwave energy on the reaction system was shown to be typically related to thermal effects (over-pressuring and superheating).     

Microwave syntheses of poly(ε‐caprolactam‐co‐ε‐caprolactone)

Microwave irradiation was applied to synthesize poly(ε‐caprolactam‐co‐ε‐caprolactone) directly from the anionic catalyzed ring opening of two cyclic monomers, ε‐caprolactam and ε‐caprolactone using a variable frequency microwave furnace, programmed to a set temperature and controlled by a pulsed power on–off system. Dielectric properties of ε‐caprolactam, ε‐caprolactone, and their mixture were measured in the microwave range from 0.4 to 3 GHz, showing that both ε‐caprolactam and ε‐caprolactone exhibited effective absorption of microwave energy to induce a fast chemical reaction. The microwave induced anionic copolymerization of ε‐caprolactam and ε‐caprolactone generated copoly(amide‐ester)s in yields as high as 70%. Conventional thermal and microwave copolymerization studies were also conducted for comparison with the microwave results. These studies demonstrated that an effective and efficient microwave method to copolymerize ε‐caprolactam with ε‐caprolactone in higher yield, higher amide content, and higher T_g 's, relative to the thermal process, has been developed. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 38: 1379–1390, 2000     

Microwave-assisted coupling with DIC/HOBt for the synthesis of difficult peptoids and fluorescently labelled peptides—a gentle heat goes a long way

Mild thermal effects (Arrhenius based) achieved with microwave heating proved to be highly successful in enabling rapid and efficient secondary amine couplings and the labelling of peptides with a variety of fluorophores and quenchers in high yields and purities with just traditional, yet robust, HOBt/DIC chemistry.     

On the Way Towards Greener Transition‐Metal‐Catalyzed Processes as Quantified by E Factors

Transition‐metal‐catalyzed carbon–carbon and carbon–heteroatom bond formations are among the most heavily used types of reactions in both academic and industrial settings. As important as these are to the synthetic community, such cross‐couplings come with a heavy price to our environment, and sustainability. E Factors are one measure of waste created, and organic solvents, by far, are the main contributors to the high values associated, in particular, with the pharmaceutical and fine‐chemical companies which utilize these reactions. An alternative to organic solvents in which cross‐couplings are run can be found in the form of micellar catalysis, wherein nanoparticles composed of newly introduced designer surfactants enable the same cross‐couplings, albeit in water, with most taking place at room temperature. In the absence of an organic solvent as the reaction medium, organic waste and hence, E Factors, drop dramatically.     

Nanonickel‐Catalyzed Suzuki–Miyaura Cross‐Couplings in Water

Nickel nanoparticles, formed in situ and used in combination with micellar catalysis, catalyze Suzuki–Miyaura cross‐couplings in water under very mild reaction conditions.     

Single‐Mode Microwave Heating‐Induced Concurrent Out‐of‐Plane Twin Growth Suppression and In‐Plane Epitaxial Growth Promotion of b‐Oriented MFI Film under Mild Reaction Conditions

In this study, single‐mode microwave heating was applied in epitaxial growth of b‐oriented MFI seed monolayer prepared by facile manual assembly, resulting in the formation of well‐intergrown and highly b‐oriented MFI film with few twins. It exhibited a precise molecular sieving property at a reaction temperature no higher than 100 °C within 2 hours, therefore making it possible for easy operation in an open environment. The capability for concurrent suppression of undesired out‐of‐plane twin growth and promotion of in‐plane epitaxial growth rate under mild reaction conditions was attributed to the obvious superiority of single‐mode microwave heating in comparison with conventional multi‐mode microwave heating in aspects of microwave field uniformity and intensity. Our research indicated that the single‐mode microwave heating technique could potentially be a useful tool for improving the microstructure and therefore the performance of diverse zeolite films.     

Measurement and Applications of Long‐Range Heteronuclear Scalar Couplings: Recent Experimental and Theoretical Developments

The use of long‐range heteronuclear couplings, in association with ¹H–¹H scalar couplings and NOE restraints, has acquired growing importance for the determination of the relative stereochemistry, and structural and conformational information of organic and biological molecules. However, the routine use of such couplings is hindered by the inherent difficulties in their measurement. Prior to the advancement in experimental techniques, both long‐range homo‐ and heteronuclear scalar couplings were not easily accessible, especially for very large molecules. The development of a large number of multidimensional NMR experimental methodologies has alleviated the complications associated with the measurement of couplings of smaller strengths. Subsequent application of these methods and the utilization of determined J‐couplings for structure calculations have revolutionized this area of research. Problems in organic, inorganic and biophysical chemistry have also been solved by utilizing the short‐ and long‐range heteronuclear couplings. In this minireview, we discuss the advantages and limitations of a number of experimental techniques reported in recent times for the measurement of long‐range heteronuclear couplings and a few selected applications of such couplings. This includes the study of medium‐ to larger‐sized molecules in a variety of applications, especially in the study of hydrogen bonding in biological systems. The utilization of these couplings in conjunction with theoretical calculations to arrive at conclusions on the hyperconjugation, configurational analysis and the effect of the electronegativity of the substituents is also discussed.     

Real‐Time Band‐Selective Homonuclear Proton Decoupling for Improving Sensitivity and Resolution in Phase‐Sensitive J‐Resolved Spectroscopy

Real‐time band‐selective homonuclear ¹H decoupling during data acquisition of z‐filtered J‐resolved spectroscopy produces ¹H‐decoupled ¹H NMR spectra and leads to sensitivity enhancement and improved resolution, and thus aids the measurement of J couplings and residual dipolar couplings in crowded regions of ¹H NMR spectrum. High quality spectra from peptides, organic molecules, and also from enantiomers dissolved in weakly aligned chiral media are reported.     

Construction of a combinatorial library of 2‐(4‐oxo‐4H‐1‐benzopyran‐3‐yl)‐4‐thiazolidinones by microwave‐assisted one‐pot parallel syntheses

A one‐pot liquid‐phase combinatorial synthesis of 2‐(4‐oxo‐4H‐1‐benzopyran‐3‐yl)‐4‐thiazolidinones bearing diverse substituents at the 3‐position under microwave irradiation was successfully performed using 3‐formyl chromone, primary amine, and mercaptoacetic acid as reactants. Compared to an identical library generated by conventional parallel synthesis, the microwave‐assisted parallel synthesis approach dramatically decreased the reaction time from an average of 9 h to 5 min, and substantially increased the product yields. The coupling of microwave technology with liquid‐phase combinatorial synthesis constitutes a novel and particularly attractive avenue for the rapid generation of structurally diverse libraries. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 18:381–389, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/hc.20309     

Non‐empirical calculations of NMR indirect carbon–carbon coupling constants: 1. Three‐membered rings

The carbon–carbon indirect nuclear spin–spin coupling constants in cyclopropane, aziridine and oxirane were investigated by means of ab initio calculations at the RPA, SOPPA and DFT/B3LYP levels. We found that the carbon–carbon couplings are by far dominated by the Fermi contact term. Our best SOPPA and DFT results are in a very good agreement with each other and with the experimental values, whereas calculations at the RPA level of theory strongly overestimate the carbon–carbon couplings. Significant differences in the basis set dependence of the calculated carbon–carbon coupling constants obtained with either wavefunction method, RPA or SOPPA, or the density functional method, DFT/B3LYP, are observed. The SOPPA results depend much more strongly on the quality of the basis set than the results of DFT/B3LYP calculations. The medium‐sized core‐valence basis sets cc‐pCVTZ and even cc‐pCVDZ were found to perform fairly well at the SOPPA level for the one‐bond carbon–carbon couplings investigated here. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Microwave Accelerated Polymerization of 2‐Phenyl‐2‐oxazoline

Summary: We studied the cationic ring‐opening polymerization of 2‐phenyl‐2‐oxazoline under microwave irradiation. A comparison with thermal heating shows a great enhancement in the reaction rates while the living character of the polymerization is conserved. The polymerizations were performed at the temperature of boiling butyronitrile (123 °C). The polymerization of 2‐phenyl‐2‐oxazoline under microwave conditions, described herein for the first time, is shown to be a rapid and environmentally friendly alternative to the classical methods.

Schematic of the activation of the reactive site by microwave irradiation.     

Ionic‐liquid‐based ultrasound/microwave‐assisted extraction of 2,4‐dihydroxy‐7‐methoxy‐1,4‐benzoxazin‐3‐one and 6‐methoxy‐benzoxazolin‐2‐one from maize (Zea mays L.) seedlings

We evaluated an ionic‐liquid‐based ultrasound/microwave‐assisted extraction method for the extraction of 2,4‐dihydroxy‐7‐methoxy‐1,4‐benzoxazin‐3‐one and 6‐methoxy‐benzoxazolin‐2‐one from etiolated maize seedlings. We performed single‐factor and central composite rotatable design experiments to optimize the most important parameters influencing this technique. The best results were obtained using 1.00 M 1‐octyl‐3‐methylimidazolium bromide as the extraction solvent, a 50°C extraction temperature, a 20:1 liquid/solid ratio (mL/g), a 21 min treatment time, 590 W microwave power, and 50 W fixed ultrasonic power. We performed a comparison between ionic‐liquid‐based ultrasound/microwave‐assisted extraction and conventional homogenized extraction. Extraction yields of 2,4‐dihydroxy‐7‐methoxy‐1,4‐benzoxazin‐3‐one and 6‐methoxy‐benzoxazolin‐2‐one by the ionic‐liquid‐based ultrasound/microwave‐assisted extraction method were 1.392 ± 0.051 and 0.205 ± 0.008 mg/g, respectively, which were correspondingly 1.46‐ and 1.32‐fold higher than those obtained by conventional homogenized extraction. All the results show that the ionic‐liquid‐based ultrasound/microwave‐assisted extraction method is therefore an efficient and credible method for the extraction of 2,4‐dihydroxy‐7‐methoxy‐1,4‐benzoxazin‐3‐one and 6‐methoxy‐benzoxazolin‐2‐one from maize seedlings.     

Biaryl and Aryl Ketone Synthesis via Pd‐Catalyzed Decarboxylative Coupling of Carboxylate Salts with Aryl Triflates

A bimetallic catalyst system has been developed that for the first time allows the decarboxylative cross‐coupling of aryl and acyl carboxylates with aryl triflates. In contrast to aryl halides, these electrophiles give rise to non‐coordinating anions as byproducts, which do not interfere with the decarboxylation step that leads to the generation of the carbon nucleophilic cross‐coupling partner. As a result, the scope of carboxylate substrates usable in this transformation was extended from ortho‐substituted or otherwise activated derivatives to a broad range of ortho‐, meta‐, and para‐substituted aromatic carboxylates. Two alternative protocols have been optimized, one involving heating the substrates in the presence of Cu^I/1,10‐phenanthroline (10–15 mol %) and PdI₂/phosphine (2–3 mol %) in NMP for 1–24 h, the other involving Cu^I/1,10‐phenanthroline (6–15 mol %) and PdBr₂/Tol‐BINAP (2 mol %) in NMP using microwave heating for 5–10 min. While most products are accessible using standard heating, the use of microwave irradiation was found to be beneficial especially for the conversion of non‐activated carboxylates with functionalized aryl triflates. The synthetic utility of the transformation is demonstrated with 48 examples showing the scope and limitations of both protocols. In mechanistic studies, the special role of microwave irradiation is elucidated, and further perspectives of decarboxylative cross‐couplings are discussed.