Protonation Switching to the Least‐Basic Heteroatom of Carbamate through Cationic Hydrogen Bonding Promotes the Formation of Isocyanate Cations

We found that phenethylcarbamates that bear ortho‐salicylate as an ether group (carbamoyl salicylates) dramatically accelerate O?C bond dissociation in strong acid to facilitate generation of isocyanate cation (N‐protonated isocyanates), which undergo subsequent intramolecular aromatic electrophilic cyclization to give dihydroisoquinolones. To generate isocyanate cations from carbamates in acidic media as electrophiles for aromatic substitution, protonation at the ether oxygen, the least basic heteroatom, is essential to promote C?O bond cleavage. However, the carbonyl oxygen of carbamates, the most basic site, is protonated exclusively in strong acids. We found that the protonation site can be shifted to an alternative basic atom by linking methyl salicylate to the ether oxygen of carbamate. The methyl ester oxygen ortho to the phenolic (ether) oxygen of salicylate is as basic as the carbamate carbonyl oxygen, and we found that monoprotonation at the methyl ester oxygen in strong acid resulted in the formation of an intramolecular cationic hydrogen bond (>C?O⁺?H???O<) with the phenolic ether oxygen. This facilitates O?C bond dissociation of phenethylcarbamates, thereby promoting isocyanate cation formation. In contrast, superacid‐mediated diprotonation at the methyl ester oxygen of the salicylate and the carbonyl oxygen of the carbamate afforded a rather stable dication, which did not readily undergo C?O bond dissociation. This is an unprecedented and unknown case in which the monocation has greater reactivity than the dication.     

Nucleophilicity of Alkyl Zirconocene and Titanocene Precatalysts,and Kinetics of Activation by Carbenium Ions and by B(C6F5)3

Kinetics of activation of methyl and benzyl metallocene precatalysts by benzhydrylium ions, tritylium ions, and triarylborane B(C₆F₅)₃ were measured spectrophotometrically. The rate constants correlate linearly with the electrophilicity parameter E of the benzhydrylium and tritylium ions employed, allowing us to determine the σ‐nucleophilicities of the metal–carbon bond of several zirconocenes and titanocenes. Bridging, substitution, metal, and ligand effects on the rates of metal–alkyl bond cleavage (M=Zr, Ti) were studied and structure–reactivity correlations were used to predict the kinetics of generation of metallocenium ions pairs, which are active catalysts in polymerization reactions and are highly electrophilic Lewis acids in frustrated Lewis pair catalysis.     

Acid‐Promoted Chemoselective Introduction of Amide Functionality onto Aromatic Compounds Mediated by an Isocyanate Cation Generated from Carbamate

Carbamates have been used as precursors of isocyanates, but heating in the presence of strong acids is required because cleavage of the C? O bond in carbamates is energy‐demanding even in acid media. Direct amidation of aromatic compounds by isocyanate cations generated at room temperature from carbamoyl salicylates in trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (TfOH) was examined. Carbamates with ortho‐salicylate as an ether group (carbamoyl salicylates) showed dramatically accelerated O? C bond dissociation in TfOH, which resulted in facile generation of the isocyanate cation. These chemoselective intermolecular aromatic amidation reactions proceeded even at room temperature and showed good compatibility with other electrophilic functionalities and high discrimination between N‐monosubstituted carbamate and N,N‐disubstituted carbamate. The reaction rates of secondary and tertiary amide formation were markedly different, and this difference was utilized to achieve successive (tandem) amidation reactions of molecules with an N‐monosubstituted carbamate and an N,N‐disubstituted carbamate with two kinds of aromatic compounds.     

Facile soft solution synthesis of delafossite structured Cu(Cr1-xFex)O2 (x = 0, 0.5, and 1) materials and their supercapacitor application

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - The investigation of metal oxides with delafossite-type crystal structure for electrochemical energy storage applications is an emerging area....