Ruthenium‐Catalyzed Cascade Annulation of Indole with Propargyl Alcohols

Cascade transformations forming multiple bonds and one‐pot procedures provide rapid access to natural‐product‐like scaffolds from simple precursors. These atom‐economic processes are valuable tools in organic synthesis and drug discovery. Herein, we report on ruthenium‐catalyzed cascade annulations of indole with readily available propargyl alcohols. These provide rapid access to diverse carbazoles, cyclohepta[b]indoles, and further fused polycycles with high selectivity. A bifunctional ruthenium complex featuring a redox‐coupled cyclopentadienone ligand acts as a common catalyst for the different cascade processes.     

Chromium‐Catalyzed Alkylation of Amines by Alcohols

The alkylation of amines by alcohols is a broadly applicable, sustainable, and selective method for the synthesis of alkyl amines, which are important bulk and fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and agrochemicals. We show that Cr complexes can catalyze this C?N bond formation reaction. We synthesized and isolated 35 examples of alkylated amines, including 13 previously undisclosed products, and the use of amino alcohols as alkylating agents was demonstrated. The catalyst tolerates numerous functional groups, including hydrogenation‐sensitive examples. Compared to many other alcohol‐based amine alkylation methods, where a stoichiometric amount of base is required, our Cr‐based catalyst system gives yields higher than 90 % for various alkyl amines with a catalytic amount of base. Our study indicates that Cr complexes can catalyze borrowing hydrogen or hydrogen autotransfer reactions and could thus be an alternative to Fe, Co, and Mn, or noble metals in (de)hydrogenation catalysis.     

Palladium‐Catalyzed N‐Alkylation of Amides and Amines with Alcohols Employing the Aerobic Relay Race Methodology

Possibly because homogeneous palladium catalysts are not typical borrowing hydrogen catalysts and ligands are thus ineffective in catalyst activation under conventional anaerobic conditions, they had not been used in the N‐alkylation reactions of amines/amides with alcohols in the past. By employing the aerobic relay race methodology with Pd‐catalyzed aerobic alcohol oxidation being a more effective protocol for alcohol activation, ligand‐free homogeneous palladiums are successfully used as active catalysts in the dehydrative N‐alkylation reactions, giving high yields and selectivities of the alkylated amides and amines. Mechanistic studies implied that the reaction most probably proceeds via the novel relay race mechanism we recently discovered and proposed.     

Platinum‐Catalyzed Domino Reaction with Benziodoxole Reagents for Accessing Benzene‐Alkynylated Indoles

Indoles are omnipresent in natural products, bioactive molecules, and organic materials. Consequently, their synthesis or functionalization are important fields of research in organic chemistry. Most works focus on installation or modification of the pyrrole ring. To access benzene‐ring‐functionalized indoles with an unsubstituted pyrrole ring remains more challenging. Reported herein is a platinum‐catalyzed cyclization/alkynylation domino process to selectively obtain C5‐ or C6‐functionalized indoles starting from easily available pyrroles. The work combines, for the first time, a platinum catalyst with ethynylbenziodoxole hypervalent iodine reagents in a domino process for the synthesis of polyfunctionalized arene rings and gives access to important building blocks for the synthesis of bioactive compounds and organic materials.     

Platinum‐Catalyzed Asymmetric Ring‐opening Reaction of Oxabenzonorbornadiene with Terminal Alkynes

A novel platinum‐catalyzed asymmetric ring‐opening reaction of oxabenzonorbornadiene with terminal alkynes is described. The reaction affords optically active cis‐2‐alkynyl‐1,2‐dihydronaphthalen‐1‐ols in moderate yields with good enantioselectivity in the presence of catalytic amounts of Pt(COD)Cl₂/(S)‐BINAP and an excess of zinc powder. The products were obtained exclusively with the relative cis‐configuration of the ring substituents and the prevalent (1R,2S)‐configuration of the stereocenters, as determined by single crystal X‐ray diffraction analysis.     

Cobalt‐Catalyzed Alkylation of Aromatic Amines by Alcohols

The implementation of inexpensive, Earth‐abundant metals in typical noble‐metal‐mediated chemistry is a major goal in homogeneous catalysis. A sustainable or green reaction that has received a lot of attention in recent years and is preferentially catalyzed by Ir or Ru complexes is the alkylation of amines by alcohols. It is based on the borrowing hydrogen or hydrogen autotransfer concept. Herein, we report on the Co‐catalyzed alkylation of aromatic amines by alcohols. The reaction proceeds under mild conditions, and selectively generates monoalkylated amines. The observed selectivity allows the synthesis of unsymmetrically substituted diamines. A novel Co complex stabilized by a PN₅P ligand catalyzes the reactions most efficiently.     

Gold‐Catalyzed Multiple Cascade Reaction of 2‐Alkynylphenylazides with Propargyl Alcohols

An unprecedented gold‐catalyzed multiple cascade reaction between 2‐alkynyl arylazides and alkynols has been developed, allowing for the step‐economical synthesis of pyrroloindolone derivatives with a wide range of structural diversity. In this reaction, the gold complex participates in triple catalysis in tandem fashion. Moreover, the efficient chirality transfer from optically pure alkynol substrates enables facile access to chiral pyrroloindolone derivatives with two stereogenic centers, including a quaternary one, with excellent levels of optical purity.     

Chemoselective Oxidation of Benzyl,Amino, and Propargyl Alcohols to Aldehydes and Ketones under Mild Reaction Conditions

Catalytic oxidation reactions often suffer from drawbacks such as low yields and poor selectivity. Particularly, selective oxidation of alcohols becomes more difficult when a compound contains more than one oxidizable functional group. In order to deliver a methodology that addresses these issues, herein we report an efficient, aerobic, chemoselective and simplified approach to oxidize a broad range of benzyl and propargyl alcohols containing diverse functional groups to their corresponding aldehydes and ketones in excellent yields under mild reaction conditions. Optimal yields were obtained at room temperature using 1 mmol substrate, 10 mol % copper(I) iodide, 10 mol % 4-dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP), and 1 mol % 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine 1-oxyl (TEMPO) in acetonitrile, under an oxygen balloon. The catalytic system can be applied even when sensitive and oxidizable groups such as alkynes, amines, and phenols are present; starting materials and products containing such groups were found to be stable under the developed conditions.     

C‐Alkylation of Ketones and Related Compounds by Alcohols: Transition‐Metal‐Catalyzed Dehydrogenation

Transition‐metal‐catalyzed C‐alkylation of ketones and secondary alcohols, with alcohols, avoids use of organometallic or environmentally unfriendly alkylating agents by means of borrowing hydrogen (BH) or hydrogen autotransfer (HA) activation of the alcohol substrates. Water is formed as the only by‐product, thus making the BH process atom‐economical and environmentally benign. Diverse homogeneous and heterogeneous transition‐metal catalysts, ketones, and alcohols can be used for this transformation, thus rendering the BH process promising for replacing those procedures that use traditional alkylating agents. This Minireview summarizes the advances during the last five years in transition‐metal‐catalyzed BH α‐alkylation of ketones, and β‐alkylation of secondary alcohols with alcohols. A discussion on the application of the BH strategy for C?C bond formation is included.     

Synthesis of Complexes with Abnormal “Protic” N‐Heterocyclic Carbenes

Neutral 4‐iodo‐N‐ethylimidazole 3 oxidatively adds to [Pt(PPh₃)₄] to give, in the presence of different tetraalkylammonium salts, complexes trans‐[ 4 ], trans‐[ 5 ], and trans‐[ 6 ] containing an anionic C4‐bound heterocycle with an unsubstituted ring‐nitrogen atom. Complex trans‐[ 4 ] reacts with the proton source NH₄I under protonation of the ring‐nitrogen atom to produce complex trans‐[ 7 ]I which bears an NH,NR‐substituted aNHC ligand. The reaction of trans‐[ 4 ] with CH₃I yields the complex trans‐[ 8 ]I which has a classical aNHC ligand with two alkylated ring‐nitrogen atoms.     

Manganese‐Catalyzed Hydrogen‐Autotransfer C−C Bond Formation: α‐Alkylation of Ketones with Primary Alcohols

A novel catalytic hydrogen‐autotransfer protocol for the atom‐efficient α‐alkylation of ketones with readily available alcohols is presented. The use of manganese complexes bearing non‐innocent PNP pincer ligands enabled the functionalization of a broad range of valuable ketones, including 2‐oxindole, estrone 3‐methyl ether, and testosterone. Mechanistic investigations suggest the participation of an intramolecular amidate‐assisted alcohol‐dehydrogenation process.     

Two‐step Synthesis of Multi‐Substituted Amines by Using an N‐Methoxy Group as a Reactivity Control Element

The development of a two‐step synthesis of multi‐substituted N‐methoxyamines from N‐methoxyamides is reported. Utilization of the N‐methoxy group as a reactivity control element was the key to success in this two‐step synthesis. The first reaction involves a N‐methoxyamide/aldehyde coupling reaction. Whereas ordinary amides cannot condense with aldehydes intermolecularly due to the poor nucleophilicity of the amide nitrogen, the N‐methoxy group enhances the nucleophilicity of the nitrogen, enabling the direct coupling reaction. The second reaction in the two‐step process was nucleophilic addition to the N‐methoxyamides. Incorporation of the N‐methoxy group into the amides increased the electrophilicity of the amide carbonyls and promoted the chelation effect. This nucleophilic addition enabled quick diversification of the products derived from the first step. The developed strategy was applicable to a variety of substrates, resulting in the elaboration of multi‐substituted piperidines and acyclic amines, as well as a substructure of a complex natural alkaloid.     

Indium‐Catalyzed Synthesis of Keto Esters from Cyclic 1,3‐Diketones and Alcohols and Application to the Synthesis of Seratrodast

Esterification reactions from cyclic 1,3‐diketones and alcohols are carried out in the presence of several Lewis acids. In particular, indium(III) triflate, In(OTf)₃, iron(III) triflate, Fe(OTf)₃, copper(II) triflate, Cu(OTf)₂, and silver(I) triflate, AgOTf, show high catalytic activities. These reactions proceed through the carbon–carbon bond cleavage by a retro‐aldol reaction and were found to be highly regioselective even in the presence of other functional groups. This type of reaction can also be applied to the preparation of the keto esters during the synthesis of seratrodast, which is an antiasthmatic and eicosanoid antagonist.