Carbogallation of alkynes using gallium tribromide and silyl ketene acetals and synthetic application to cross-coupling with aryl iodides.

Gallium tribromide catalyzed coupling reaction of alkenyl ethers with ketene silyl acetals.

Iron-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions.

Simple iron salts such as FeCl(n), Fe(acac)(n) (n = 2,3) or the salen complex 4 turned out to be highly efficient, cheap, toxicologically benign, and environmentally friendly precatalysts for a host of cross-coupling reactions of alkyl or aryl Grignard reagents, zincates, or organomanganese species with aryl and heteroaryl chlorides, triflates, and even tosylates. An "inorganic Grignard reagent...

Asymmetric cycloadditions of o-quinone methides employing chiral ammonium fluoride precatalysts.

The catalytic, enantioselective, [4 + 2] cycloaddition reaction of ortho-quinone methides with silyl ketene acetals is described. This mechanistically interesting reaction, initiated by a chiral cinchona alkaloid-derived ammonium fluoride "precatalyst" complex, affords a variety of alkyl- and aryl-substituted 3,4-dihydrocoumarin products in excellent yield and with good enantioselectivity.

A domino pericyclic route to polysubstituted salicylic acid derivatives: four sequential processes from enynones and ketene silyl acetals.

Alkenyl alkynyl ketones and ketene silyl acetals (KSAs) undergo regioselective [2+2]-cycloaddition under thermal conditions, triggering domino pericyclic reactions en route to various poly-substituted salicylic acid derivatives.

Enantioselective acylation of silyl ketene acetals through fluoride anion-binding catalysis.

A highly enantioselective acylation of silyl ketene acetals with acyl fluorides has been developed to generate useful α,α-disubstituted butyrolactone products. This transformation is promoted by a new thiourea catalyst and 4-pyrrolidinopyridine and represents the first example of enantioselective thiourea anion-binding catalysis with fluoride.