Among privileged structures, indoles occupy a central place in medicinal chemistry and alkaloid research. Here we report a flexible and efficient conversion of pyrrole-3-carboxaldehydes to substituted 7-amino-5-cyanoindoles. Phosphine addition to fumaronitrile proceeds with prototropic rearrangement of the initially formed zwitterion to the thermodynamically favored phosphonium ylide, which is ...

P-Hydroxytetraorganophosphorane, the long-postulated intermediate in phosphonium salt and ylide hydrolysis, has been observed and characterised by low temperature NMR, finally definitively establishing its involvement in these reactions. The results require modification of the previously accepted mechanism for ylide hydrolysis: P-hydroxytetraorganophosphorane is generated directly by 4-centre r...

Secondary ligand–metal interactions are decisive in many catalytic transformations. While arene–gold have repeatedly been reported as critical structural feature high-performance gold catalysts, we herein report that these can also be replaced by Au???H?C hydrogen bonds without suffering any reduction performance. Systematic experimental and computational studies on a series of ylide-substitute...

Photolysis of derivatives of dimethylmalonate thiophene-S,C-ylide provides dicarbomethoxycarbene, which can react with thiophene to form dimethyl (2-thienyl)malonate. By generation of dicarbomethoxycarbene from the dibenzothiophene-based ylide in neat thiophene, it is shown that the thienylmalonate is not a product of rearrangement of the thiophene ylide, in contrast to thermolysis results. For...

In this paper, we describe studies on the cyclopropanation of Michael acceptors with chiral sulfur ylides. It had previously been found that semi-stabilized sulfonium ylides (e.g., Ph-stabilized) reacted with cyclic and acyclic enones and substituted acrylates with high ee and that stabilized sulfonium ylides (e.g., ester-stabilized) reacted with cyclic enones again with high ee. The current st...

Thanks to the +PCy3 substituents which are unlikely undergo intramolecular C–H activation, Pd(II) complex [(C,C,C)PdCl](OTf) having a neutral LX2-type NHC, diphosphonium bis(ylide) pincer ligand was selectively prepared by double deprotonation of [(NHC)PdCl2(Py)] precursor with tBuOK. The influence on overall electronic properties this scaffold evaluated IR spectroscopy data corresponding Pd–CO...

An exceptionally mild method for the preparation of isatin derivatives has been developed using a sulfur ylide mediated carbonyl homologation sequence starting from anthranilic acid precursors. This method proceeds at ambient temperature via a sulfur ylide intermediate without the need for protection of the amine or chromatographic isolation of the intermediate ylide. Gentle oxidation of the su...

Reaction of dibenzoylmethane with (diacetoxyiodo)benzene in the presence of KOH in MeCN quantitatively gave the corresponding iodonium ylide, which was treated with a HF reagent to afford the corresponding 2-fluorinated dibenzoylmethane in 14-50% yields. The similar reaction of the iodonium ylides obtained from 1-phenylbutan-1,3-dione, ethyl benzoylacetate, and ethyl p-nitrobenzoylacetate with ...