A catalytic enantioselective reaction based on a copper(II) catalyst strictly containing chiral anionic ligands is described. In the present work, copper(II)-phosphate catalyst promotes the intramolecular heterocyclization of 2-(1-alkynyl)-2-alkene-1-ones and facilitates high levels of enantioselectivity in the subsequent nucleophile attack. Mechanistic studies suggest that formation of a coppe...

Tandem Au(III)-catalyzed heterocyclization/Nazarov cyclizations leading to substituted carbocycle fused furans are described. An interesting dichotomy of reaction pathways as a function of solvent, confirmed by the isolation and trapping of reaction intermediates, provided a basis for computational studies that supported the experimental findings.

Photo-mediated 6π cyclization is a valuable method for the formation of fused heterocyclic systems. Here we demonstrate that irradiation of cyclic 2-aryloxyketones with blue LED light in the presence of an IrIII complex leads to efficient and high yielding arylation across a panoply of substrates by energy transfer. 2-Arylthioketones and 2-arylaminoketones also cyclize effectively under these c...

New gold-catalyzed methods using the β-lactam scaffold have been recently developed for the synthesis of different sized heterocycles. This overview focuses on heterocyclization reactions of allenic and alkynic β-lactams which rely on the activation of the allene and alkyne component. The mechanism as well as the regio- and stereoselectivity of the cyclizations are also discussed.

Knoevenagel condensations between aldehydes and substrates containing active methylene groups were carried out in ethanol at room temperature, in the presence of potassium phosphate, to afford unsymmetrical olefins. These condensations have been shown to afford only the E-isomers in greater than 80% yields. Salicylaldehyde first produces the Knoevenagel condensation products, which undergo a su...

The synthesis of new 3-dithiocarbamic flavonoids has been accomplished by the reaction of the corresponding 2-hydroxyaryl dithiocarbamates with aminals. These flavonoids were obtained as a mixture of diastereoisomers, the anti isomer being the major one. The heterocyclization of these compounds provided novel tricyclic flavonoids bearing a 1,3-dithiolium-2-yl ring fused at the 3,4-carbon positi...

A bidentate iridium NHC-phosphine complex has been developed and applied to the N-monoalkylation of aromatic amines with a wide range of primary alcohols and to the N-heterocyclization of amino alcohols. This reaction resulted in high isolated product yields, even at room temperature and under solvent-free conditions.