C?H Bond Arylation in the Synthesis of Aryltetralin Lignans: A Short Total Synthesis of Podophyllotoxin

A short total synthesis of podophyllotoxin, the prototypical aryltetralin lignan natural product, is reported. Key to the success of this synthetic pathway is a Pd‐catalyzed C(sp³)–H arylation reaction enabled by a conformational biasing element to promote C–C reductive elimination over an alternative C N bond‐forming pathway. This strategy allows for access to the natural product in five steps from commercially available bromopiperonal, and sheds light on subtle conformational effects governing reductive elimination pathways from high‐valent palladium centers.     

Oxindole Synthesis by Direct Coupling of C?H and C?H Centers

An sp ² /sp ³ get‐together : A novel and efficient method can be used to synthesize 3,3‐disubstitued oxindoles by the direct intramolecular oxidative coupling of an aryl C? H and a C? H center (see scheme; DMF=N,N‐dimethylformamide).

     

Amide‐Directed Tandem C?C/C?N Bond Formation through C?H Activation

The transformation of C? H bonds into other chemical bonds is of great significance in synthetic chemistry. C? H bond‐activation processes provide a straightforward and atom‐economic strategy for the construction of complex structures; as such, they have attracted widespread interest over the past decade. As a prevalent directing group in the field of C? H activation, the amide group not only offers excellent regiodirecting ability, but is also a potential C? N bond precursor. As a consequence, a variety of nitrogen‐containing heterocycles have been obtained by using these reactions. This Focus Review addresses the recent research into the amide‐directed tandem C? C/C? N bond‐formation process through C? H activation. The large body of research in this field over the past three years has established it as one of the most‐important topics in organic chemistry.     

Orchestrated Triple C?H Activation Reactions Using Two Directing Groups: Rapid Assembly of Complex Pyrazoles

A sequential triple C H activation reaction directed by a pyrazole and an amide group leads to the well‐controlled construction of sterically congested dihydrobenzo[e]indazole derivatives. This cascade reaction demonstrates that the often problematic competing C H activation pathways in the presence of multiple directing groups can be harvested by design to improve step economy in synthesis. Pyrazole as a relatively weak coordinating group is shown to direct C H activation for the first time.     

Silver‐Catalyzed Oxidative Activation of Benzylic C?H Bonds for the Synthesis of Difluoromethylated Arenes

A mild and catalytic method to form difluoromethylated arenes through the activation of benzylic C H bonds has been developed. Utilizing AgNO₃ as the catalyst, various arenes with diverse functional groups undergo activation/fluorination of benzylic C H bonds with commercially available Selectfluor reagent as a source of fluorine in aqueous solution. The reaction is operationally simple and amenable to gram‐scale synthesis.     

B?H,C?H,and B?C Bond Activation: The Role of Two Adjacent Agostic Interactions

Tuning the nature of the linker in a L∼BHR phosphinoborane compound led to the isolation of a ruthenium complex stabilized by two adjacent, δ‐C H and ε‐B_sp2 H, agostic interactions. Such a unique coordination mode stabilizes a 14‐electron “RuH₂P₂” fragment through connected σ‐bonds of different polarity, and affords selective B H, C H, and B C bond activation as illustrated by reactivity studies with H₂ and boranes.     

Simple Sulfinate Synthesis Enables C?H Trifluoromethylcyclopropanation

A simple method to convert readily available carboxylic acids into sulfinate salts by employing an interrupted Barton decarboxylation reaction is reported. A medicinally oriented panel of ten new sulfinate reagents was created using this method, including a key trifluoromethylcyclopropanation reagent, TFCS‐Na. The reactivity of six of these salts towards C H functionalization was field‐tested using several different classes of heterocycles.     

Synthesis and properties of fluorinated benzotriazole-based donor-acceptor-type conjugated polymers via Pd-catalyzed direct C?H/C?H coupling polymerization

Fluorine substituted benzotriazole (BTz) units have shown great potential in improving various conjugated polymers (CPs)-based optoelectronic devices' performance. Thus, it is highly expected for the establishment of simple, efficient, and inexpensive accesses to such polymers. In this paper, Pd-catalyzed direct C H/C H coupling polymerization is first employed for the synthesis of 5,6-difluorobenzotriazole containing π-CPs, which fully avoids prefunctionalization of monomers. Under the optimized conditions, a series of donor-acceptor-type π-CPs with excellent regio-regularity are facilely obtained via the direct C H/C H coupling reaction of 5,6-difluoro-2-(2-hexyldecyl)-2H-BTz with different thiophene analogs. The chemical structure of the as-synthesized polymers are confirmed by NMR technique including ¹H NMR, ¹⁹F NMR, and the edited heteronuclear singular quantum correlation and heteronuclear multiple bond correlation spectra as well as comparative study on the same polymers obtained via Stille coupling and direct (hetero)arylation polymerization. Further, their optical properties, electrochemical properties, and thermal stabilities are also carefully explored by UV–Vis absorption spectra, cyclic voltammograms as well as thermogravimetric analysis, respectively. On the basis of density functional theory (DFT) simulation, the effect of alkyl substituents attached to thiophene units on the reactivity and optical performance of the resultant polymers is explained. Our protocol exhibits remarkable advantages in synthetic simplicity, atom-economy, high efficiency, and excellent regioselectivity of cross-coupling, providing an alternative synthetic strategy for high-performance optoelectronic materials.     

Coupling of Sterically Hindered Trisubstituted Olefins and Benzocyclobutenones by C?C Activation: Total Synthesis and Structural Revision of Cycloinumakiol

The first total syntheses of the proposed structure of cycloinumakiol ( 1 ) and its C5 epimer ( 18 ) are achieved in a concise and efficient fashion. Starting from the known 3‐hydroxybenzocyclobutenone, 1 and 18 are obtained in nine and five steps with overall yields of 15 % and 33 %, respectively. The key for the success of this approach is the use of a catalytic C C activation strategy for constructing the tetracyclic core of 1 through carboacylation of a sterically hindered trisubstituted olefin with benzocyclobutenone. In addition, the structure of the natural cycloinumakiol was reassigned to 19‐hydroxytotarol ( 7 ) through X‐ray diffraction analysis. This work demonstrates the potential of C C activation for streamlining complex natural product synthesis.     

Preferential Activation of Primary C?H Bonds in the Reactions of Small Alkanes with the Diatomic MgO+. Cation

The C? H bond activation of small alkanes by the gaseous MgO^+. cation is probed by mass spectrometric means. In addition to H‐atom abstraction from methane, the MgO^+. cation reacts with ethane, propane, n‐ and iso‐butane through several pathways, which can all be assigned to the occurrence of initial C? H bond activations. Specifically, the formal C? C bond cleavages observed are assigned to C? H bond activation as the first step, followed by cleavage of a β‐C? C bond concomitant with release of the corresponding alkyl radical. Kinetic modeling of the observed product distributions reveals a high preference of MgO^+. for the attack of primary C? H bonds. This feature represents a notable distinction of the main‐group metal oxide MgO^+. from various transition‐metal oxide cations, which show a clear preference for the attack of secondary C? H bonds. The results of complementary theoretical calculations indicate that the C? H bond activation of larger alkanes by the MgO^+. cation is subject to pronounced kinetic control.