Here we report on inroads concerning increased substrate breadth via the picolylamine organocatalyst template, a vicinal chiral diamine based on a pyridine-primary amine motif. The addition of cyclohexanone to β-nitrostyrene has many catalyst solutions, but cyclopentanone and isobutyraldehyde additions continue to be challenging. PicAm-3 (10 mol%) readily allows the Michael addition of cyclopen...

A powerful intermolecular version of the Tomita zipper-cyclization (TZC) reaction was developed to provide functionalized drug-like cyclopentanone-fused benzosultams in good yields with excellent stereoselectivities using organophosphine-catalysis.

Despite the growing use of renewable and sustainable biofuels in transportation, their combustion chemistry is poorly understood, limiting our efforts to reduce harmful emissions. Here we report on the (dissociative) ionization and the thermal decomposition mechanism of cyclopentanone, studied using imaging photoelectron photoion coincidence spectroscopy. The fragmentation of the ions is domina...

The direct α, β-dehydrogenation of aldehydes and ketones represents an efficient alternative to stepwise methods to prepare enal and enone products. Here, we describe a new Pd(TFA)(2)/4,5-diazafluorenone dehydrogenation catalyst that overcomes key limitations of previous catalyst systems. The scope includes successful reactivity with pharmaceutically important cyclopentanone and flavanone subst...

An enantioselective synthesis of (+)-coronafacic acid has been achieved. Rhodium-catalyzed cyclization of an alpha-diazoester provided the intermediate cyclopentanone in high enantiomeric purity. Subsequent Fe-mediated cyclocarbonylation of a derived alkenyl cyclopropane gave a bicyclic enone that then was hydrogenated and carried on to the natural product.

Reactions of N-isocyaniminotriphenylphosphorane with cyclopentanone have been studied in the presence of aromatic carboxylic acids and primary amines, proceeds smoothly at room temperature under neutral conditions to afford sterically congested 1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives by an intramolecular Aza-Wittig cyclization in CH2Cl2 in excellent yields. The structures of the products were deduced from...

Supported Au nanoparticles showed efficient catalytic performance for the ring rearrangement of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) to a cyclopentanone derivative, 3-hydroxymethylcyclopentanone (HCPN), by taking advantage of the selective hydrogenation on Au nanoparticles and the Lewis acid catalysis of metal oxide supports. Among various metal oxide supported Au catalysts, the highest yield of HCPN ...