General Synthetic Route to Monosubstituted Cycloheptadienes from Organometallic Compounds

An examination of the literature reveals that only a limited number of monosubstituted cycloheptadiene compounds have been reported. An obvious synthetic route to 5-substituted -1, 3-cycloheptadiene derivatives would be the reaction of nucleophiles with the cycloheptadienyl cation, but this pathway is generally unsuccessful due to the limited stability of the cation. On the other hand, the iron tricarbonyl complex of this cation shows remarkable stability¹ and an ability to react with nucleophiles². If the -Fe(CO)₃ group could be removed easily, a facile route to this family of organic compounds would be available. This work reports our investigation of the range of nucleophiles that can be utilized and the oxidizing agents that can remove efficiently the -Fe(CO)₃ group.     

Enantioselective and Regiodivergent Functionalization of N‐Allylcarbamates by Mechanistically Divergent Multicatalysis

A pair of mechanistically divergent multicatalytic reaction sequences has been developed consisting of nickel‐catalyzed isomerization of N‐allylcarbamates and subsequent phosphoric‐acid‐catalyzed enantioselective functionalization of the resulting intermediates. By appropriate selection of reaction partners, in situ generated imines and ene‐carbamates are mechanistically partitioned to yield opposing functionalized products. Formal α‐functionalization to give protected α‐arylamines is achieved upon enantioselective Friedel–Crafts reaction with arene nucleophiles, whereas formal β‐functionalization is achieved upon reaction with diarylimine electrophiles in an enantioselective Povarov‐[4+2] cycloaddition.     

Poly (dodecacarborane-siloxanes)

The need for elastomeric polymers which will maintain their elastic properties at high temperatures has led to a wide interest in inorganic-based polymers [l]. The development of carborane-siloxane polymers in the early 1960s was a breakthrough in the search for a high-temperature elastomer. Incorporation of a carborane moiety into the siloxane backbone significantly enhanced the overall thermal stability [2].