Introduction In 1950, the chemists Otto Paul Hermann Diels, from Germany, and Kurt Alder, originally born in Prussia and then moved to Germany after World War I, received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for the discovery of a new way to synthesize cyclic molecules. Aptly titled the Diels-Alder Cycloaddition Reaction, this new mechanism allowed conjugated dienes to undergo addition reactions with a...

Poly(methylhydrosiloxane) (PMHS) supported organic catalysts promoted the Diels-Alder reaction of dienes with α,β-unsaturated aldehydes, also in pure water, in yields and enantiomeric excesses comparable to those observed with the non-supported catalysts (up to 93% ee). Recycling of the catalysts was performed with no loss of enantioselectivity for at least five reaction cycles.

A Diels-Alder reaction between cyclopentadiene and a variety of ketenimines is reported. A copper(I)-bis(phosphine complex catalyzes the cycloaddition across the C═N bond of the ketenimine in a [4 + 2] reaction to give an enamine intermediate that is hydrolyzed upon purification to generate aminoketones.

3A5AF, a biomass derived furan obtained from chitin, is used as diene in the Diels–Alder reaction with maleimides. This allows incorporation of bio-based nitrogen into final products, challenge unmet by commonly furanics.

Lipase B from Candida antarctica (CAL-B) has been site-directedly modified by the introduction of a trans,trans-hexadiene moiety onto lipase molecules, identified by MALDI-TOF. This modification on CAL-B permitted its immobilization on Q-Sepharose supports in excellent yields (>95%) when native lipase was not immobilized at pH 7 and 25 °C. After the entire modification procedure, the catalytic ...

The Diels-Alder reaction of the 2-phosphaindolizine-η(1)-P-aluminium(O-menthoxy) dichloride complex with dimethylbutadiene was investigated experimentally and computationally. The >C=P- functionality of the complex reacts with 2,3-dimethylbutadiene with complete diastereoselectivity to afford [2 + 4] cycloadducts. Calculation of the model substrate, 3-methoxycarbonyl-1-methyl-2-phosphaindolizin...

The intrinsic reactivity of eight gaseous, mass-selected 2-azabutadienyl cations toward polar [4(+) + 2] cycloaddition with ethyl vinyl ether has been investigated by pentaquadrupole mass spectrometric experiments. Cycloaddition occurs readily for all the ions and, with the only exception of those from the N-acyl 2-azabutadienyl cations (N-acyliminium ions), the cycloadducts are found to dissoc...

The two competing mechanisms in the reaction of 3-trialkylsilyloxy-2-aza-1,3 dienes to form beta-lactams through a [2+2] electrocyclic ring closure or tetrahydrooxazinan-4-ones via a [4+2] hetero-Diels-Alder reaction were studied using Density Functional computations. Although the [2+2] and [4+2] mechanisms are typical of dienes, their competition, starting from the same diene intermediate, has...