Visible light‐induced controlled radical polymerization of methacrylates with perfluoroalkyl iodide as the initiator in conjugation with a photoredox catalyst fac‐[Ir(ppy)]3

A new visible light‐induced controlled radical polymerization of methacrylate with perfluoro‐1‐iodohexane (CF₃(CF₂)₅I) as the initiator in the presence of a photoredox catalyst (fac‐[Ir(ppy)₃]) was developed. Mechanistically, a photoexcited fac‐[Ir(ppy)₃]* complex reacted with dormant C‐I species to generate the chain propagating radical and Ir^IVI complex, which could be reversibly reduced by the propagating radical. The molecular weight (M_n) and the corresponding distribution index (M_w/M_n = 1.4) were controlled in the polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA). For the polymerization of functional monomers, such as glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) and trifluoroethyl methacrylate, their monomer conversions could be up to 96 and 94%, respectively. No polymerization reaction took place without external light stimulation, indicating that the system was an ideal photo “on?off” switchable system. Furthermore, a clean diblock copolymer PMMA‐b‐PGMA was successfully synthesized with PMMA‐I as the macroinitiator. With CF₃(CF₂)₅I as the initiator, short CF₃(CF₂)₅? group tags were introduced on the produced polymer chains. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2014 , 52, 3283–3291     

A highly regioselective bisselenation of allenes with diphenyl diselenide catalyzed by tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(0)

Tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(0) acts as an effective catalyst for highly regioselective bisselenation of allenes with diphenyl diselenide.     

Novel one pot synthesis of substituted quinazolin-4(3H)-ones and pyrazolo[4,3-d]pyrimidin-7(6H)-ones using copper iodide,azides and terminal alkynes

A simple and highly efficient copper iodide catalyzed one-pot synthesis of 2-substituted quinazolin-4(3H)-ones have been developed from anthranilamide, terminal alkynes and azides. A wide variety of alkynes were screened to understand the scope of this methodology. This method has been extended for the synthesis of 5-substituted pyrazolo[4,3-d]pyrimidin-7(6H)-ones which are having potential applications in medicinal chemistry.     

A novel way of preparing meso-substituted ethynylporphyrins and their derivatives by using 1,2,3-thiadiazole as a protecting group

Meso-(1,2,3-thiadiazol-4-yl) porphyrins are smoothly transformed to the corresponding ethynyl derivatives using potassium tert-butoxide as base. Some metal-catalyzed coupling reactions of these acetylenes are described.     

Iron‐Induced Regio‐ and Stereoselective Addition of Sulfenyl Chlorides to Alkynes by a Radical Pathway

The radical addition of the Cl? S σ‐bond in sulfenyl chlorides to various C? C triple bonds has been achieved with excellent regio‐ and stereoselectivity in the presence of a catalytic amount of a common iron salt. The reaction is compatible with a variety of functional groups and can be scaled up to the gram‐scale with no loss in yield. As well as terminal alkynes, internal alkynes underwent stereodefined chlorothiolation to provide tetrasubstituted alkynes. Preliminary mechanistic investigations revealed a plausible radical process involving a sulfur‐centered radical intermediate via iron‐mediated homolysis of the Cl? S bond. The resulting chlorothiolation adducts can be readily transformed to the structurally complex alkenyl sulfides by cross‐coupling reactions. The present reaction can also be applied to the complementary synthesis of the potentially useful bis‐sulfoxide ligands for transition‐metal‐catalyzed reactions.     

A substrate-based folding process incorporating chemodifferentiating ABB' three-component reactions of terminal alkynoates and 1,2-dicarbonyl compounds: a skeletal-diversity-oriented synthetic manifold

A novel three-component reaction (3CR)-based folding process that is able to generate complexity and skeletal diversity is described. The process utilizes chemodifferentiating organocatalyzed ABB' 3CRs of a terminal conjugated alkynoate (building block) with alpha-dicarbonyl compounds (diversity-generating blocks) to generate an array of different molecular topologies (gamma-lactones, linear propargylic enol ethers, or 1,3-dioxolane rings). Amides and esters behave as efficient reactivity-encoding elements (sigma) of the attached keto functionality. Three chemical properties govern the chemical outcome of this folding process: acidity, nucleophilicity (of the catalyst), and carbonyl electrophilicity. Overall, this substrate-based folding process generates three different molecular architectures from the same modular functionalities (ketones) and under the same reaction conditions (methyl propiolate and tertiary amine). In addition, and very importantly for combinatorial applications, all of the products share a common reactive functionality that allows them to be collective substrates for a subsequent diversity-generating process.     

A simple, efficient, and highly selective method for the iodination of alcohols using ZrCl4/NaI

Iodination of primary, secondary, allylic, and benzylic alcohols giving their corresponding iodides was achieved with ZrCl₄/NaI in anhydrous CH₃CN with excellent yields and selectivities.     

A colorimetric method for highly sensitive and accurate detection of iodide by finding the critical color in a color change process using silver triangular nanoplates

In this contribution, we demonstrated a novel colorimetric method for highly sensitive and accurate detection of iodide using citrate-stabilized silver triangular nanoplates (silver TNPs). Very lower concentration of iodide can induce an appreciable color change of silver TNPs solution from blue to yellow by fusing of silver TNPs to nanoparticles, as confirmed by UV–vis absorption spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The principle of this colorimetric assay is not an ordinary colorimetry, but a new colorimetric strategy by finding the critical color in a color change process. With this strategy, 0.1 μM of iodide can be recognized within 30 min by naked-eyes observation, and lower concentration of iodide down to 8.8 nM can be detected using a spectrophotometer. Furthermore, this high sensitive colorimetric assay has good accuracy, stability and reproducibility comparing with other ordinary colorimetry. We believe this new colorimetric method will open up a fresh insight of simple, rapid and reliable detection of iodide and can find its future application in the biochemical analysis or clinical diagnosis.     

Enantioselective total syntheses of the Ipecacuanha alkaloid emetine, the Alangium alkaloid tubulosine and a novel benzoquinolizidine alkaloid by using a domino process

The first enantioselective syntheses of the Ipecacuanha alkaloid emetine (1) and the Alangium alkaloid tubulosine (2) is described employing a domino Knoevenagel/hetero-Diels-Alder reaction and an enantioselective catalytic transfer hydrogenation of imines as key steps. Thus, hydrogenation of the imine 15 with the catalyst (R,R)-16 gives the tetrahydroisoquinoline 14 with 95 % ee which was transformed into the aldehyde (1S)-7. The three-component domino reaction of (1S)-7 with 6 and 8 led to 19, which in a second domino process was treated with K(2)CO(3) in methanol followed by a hydrogenation to give the benzoquinolizidine 4 together with the diastereomers 22 and 23 in a overall yield of 66 %. Further transformation of 4 with the amines 3 and 5 yielded enantiopure emetine (1) and tubulosine (2), respectively. In addition, starting from 19 the novel benzoquinolizidine alkaloid 34 was synthesised; this compound resembles the vallesiachotamine alkaloid dihydroantirhin 31, which has not been isolated so far but probably must also exist in nature.     

One-pot synthesis of aryl alkyl thioethers and diaryl disulfides using carbon disulfide as a sulfur surrogate in the presence of diethylamine catalyzed by copper(I) iodide in polyethylene glycol (PEG200)

A copper catalyzed one-pot protocol for the preparation of aryl alkyl thioethers and diaryl disulfides using carbon disulfide as the sulfur source and diethylamine in polyethylene glycol (PEG200) is described.     

Construction of reversible hydration–dehydration system by a model compound and a novel polymer bearing vicinal tricarbonyl structure

A novel polymer bearing acyclic vicinal tricarbonyl moieties in the side chains was synthesized by (1) radical polymerization of a styrene derivative with a 1,3‐diketone structure and (2) successive treatment of the resulting polystyrene derivative by N‐bromosuccinimide to convert its 1,3‐diketone moiety in the side chains into the corresponding vicinal tricarbonyl moiety. The tricarbonyl moiety was highly reactive with water to permit its rapid conversion into a geminal diol structure in water‐containing acetone. On the other hand, heating the resulting polymer bearing the geminal diol structure under vacuum enabled successful recovery of the vicinal tricarbonyl moiety to demonstrate the reversible nature of this system, which allowed us to repeat the hydration–dehydration cycle without deteriorating the polymer structure. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011     

A fast route for the synthesis of tetrazolyl oximes by a novel multicomponent reaction between Z-chlorooximes,isocyanides and trimethylsilyl azide

A library of twenty variously decorated 1,5-disubstituted-(1H-tetrazol-5-yl)methanone oximes was prepared in one single synthetic step exploiting the combination of (Z)-chlorooximes, isocyanides and trimethylsilyl azide. The formal [3+1] cycloaddition between isocyanides and nitrile N-oxides with respect to the [3+1] cycloaddition between isocyanides and azides prevails, while the direct attack of azide onto nitrile N-oxides remains competitive. Finally, an intramolecular cyclization of a (1H-tetrazol-5-yl)methanone oxime to a benzoisoxazole tetrazole is reported for the first time.     

Separation and purification of hydroxytysol and oleuropein from Olea europaea L. (olive) leaves using macroporous resins and a novel solvent system

The separation and purification of hydroxytysol and oleuropein from Olea europaea L. (olive) using a macroporous resin with a novel solvent system was systematically investigated. Static adsorption experiments with BMKX–4 resin revealed that the experimental data of both hydroxytysol and oleuropein fitted best to the pseudo‐second‐order kinetic and Freundlich isotherm models. The thermodynamic parameters indicated spontaneous and exothermic adsorption processes. The novel solvent system, composed of n–hexane:ethyl acetate:methanol:water in a (v/v/v/v) ratio of 1:9:1:9, had two phases (upper and lower). The separation and purification parameters of hydroxytysol and oleuropein were optimized using dynamic adsorption/desorption on a column packed with BMKX–4 resin. The effects of flow rates and volumes of the upper and lower phases on the separation efficiency were systematically studied. Under optimal conditions, the fraction of hydroxytysol in the final product increased by 6.34‐fold from 0.46 to 2.96%, with a yield rate of 88.58% w/w, while that of oleuropein increased 4.17‐fold from 11.40 to 47.59%, with a 93.31% w/w yield rate. These results may be help in selecting a suitable eluent for improved separation of macroporous adsorption resins.     

A novel and highly selective conversion of alcohols, thiols, and silyl ethers to azides using the triphenylphosphine/2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyanobenzoquinone(DDQ)/n-Bu4NN3 system

Alcohols, thiols, and silyl ethers are converted into alkyl azides in good to excellent yields by treatment with PPh₃/DDQ/n-Bu₄NN₃ in CH₂Cl₂ at room temperature. The method is highly selective for 1° alcohols in the presence of 2° and 3° ones, and also thiols and silyl ethers.