A chiral tridentate ketimine P,N,N-ligand has been successfully applied in the copper-catalyzed enantioselective propargylic substitution of propargylic acetates with a variety of β-dicarbonyl compounds, in which excellent enantioselectivities (up to >99% ee) and high yields have been obtained.

The use of [(IPr)AuOH] permits the generation of gold(i)-amine complexes by a silver-free protocol. These in situ or well-defined complexes are used in a straightforward synthetic route to substituted allenes from propargylic acetates. The catalytic activity can be modulated as a function of the nature of the ligand bound to the gold-NHC moiety.

A one-pot, two step synthesis of highly substituted imidazoles has been carried out in good to excellent yields for the first time via a cascade intermolecular aza-SN2'-intramolecular aza-Michael addition involving a variety of Morita-Baylis-Hillman acetates of nitroalkenes and amidines in the presence of DABCO at room temperature. The synthetic and biological utility of the products has been d...

An efficient three component one-pot method was developed to assemble 2-heteroaryl-2-aryl acetates via VNS(Ar)-S(N)Ar and VNS(Ar)-S(N) reaction by using N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) as general solvent.

In the RuCl2(p-cymene)/PPh3 catalysed regioselective allylic alkylation of monosubstituted allyl acetates with malonate anion, the selective substitution at the position originally substituted with acetate was observed.

A new and efficient approach to benzocycles from cyclopropene derivatives is described. Deprotection by organolithiums and subsequent ring-opening cyclization of the related 2-cyclopropenyl phenyl or benzyl acetates generated benzofurans and isochromenes in one pot.

Chiral ruthenium(II)-salen complexes [RuII(salen)(PPh3)2] catalyse asymmetric aziridination of alkenes with up to 83% ees, asymmetric amidation of silyl enol ethers with up to 97% ees, and allylic amidation of cholesteryl acetates with good regioselectivity.

Tandem rhodium-catalyzed oxidative allylation and annulation of acetanilides with allyl acetate to afford the corresponding indoles are described. In addition, the site-selective C2 allylation, crotylation and prenylation of indoles using allylic acetates under rhodium catalysis are reported.