A palladium-catalyzed three-component reaction of N-tosylhydrazone, norbornene and aryl halide has been demonstrated. In this reaction, an intermolecular Heck-type reaction occurs, which is followed by the alkyl palladium carbene migratory insertion process. This transformation provides an efficient and convenient methodology for the double functionalization of norbornene with good to excellent...

A study of the reactions of ferroporphyrins, in the presence of an excess of a reducing agent, with various polyhalogenated compounds, has led to a general method of preparation of iron-carbene complexes, Fe(porphyrin) (CRR') . It has thus been possible to obtain iron complexes of the dihalogenocarbenes CC12, CBr2, CF2, CFBr and CFC1, which are thermally stable (up to 100°C) and not dissociated...

A number of palladium-N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) complexes were found to be active catalysts for the arylation of ketones. A large number of substrates, both aryl halides and ketones, are compatible with the reaction conditions. The ketone arylation reactions are achieved with low catalyst loading in short reaction times using aryl chlorides and triflates as reactive partners. [reaction: see ...

Recent work has shown that engineered variants of cytochrome P450BM3 (CYP102A1) efficiently catalyze non-natural reactions, including carbene and nitrene transfer reactions. Given the broad substrate range of natural P450 enzymes, we set out to explore if this diversity could be leveraged to generate a broad panel of new catalysts for olefin cyclopropanation (i.e., carbene transfer). Here, we t...

Artificial metalloenzymes (ArMs) formed by incorporating synthetic metal catalysts into protein scaffolds have the potential to impart to chemical reactions selectivity that would be difficult to achieve using metal catalysts alone. In this work, we covalently link an alkyne-substituted dirhodium catalyst to a prolyl oligopeptidase containing a genetically encoded L-4-azidophenylalanine residue...

A new route to the chromene ring system has been developed which involves the reaction of an α,β-unsaturated Fischer carbene complex of chromium with a propargyl ether bearing an alkenyl group on the propargylic carbon. This transformation involves a cascade of reactions that begins with a benzannulation reaction and is followed by the formation of an o-quinone methide, and finally results in t...

The carbene complex 5-(2,2-dimethyl-2H-chromene)methoxylmethylene chromium pentacarbonyl will undergo a benzannulation reaction with phenylacetylene, 1-pentyne, 3-hexyne, and trimethylsilylacetylene to give 7-hydroxy-10-methoxy-3H-naphtho[2.1-b]pyrans as the primary product. These compounds are difficult to obtain pure due to their sensitivity to air. If the benzannulation reaction is performed...

A series of gold(I) complexes [AuCl(trz)] were synthesized that contain 1,2,3-triazolylidene (trz) ligands with variable wingtip groups. In the presence of AgBF4, these complexes undergo ligand redistribution to yield cationic complexes [Au(trz)2]BF4 in high yields as a result of efficient carbene transfer. Identical reactivity patterns were detected for carbene gold complexes comprised of Ardu...

A ruthenium phthalocyanine catalyzes the cyclopropanation of olefins (15 substr.) and single carbene insertion into N–H bonds aromatic, heteroaromatic aliphatic amines (20 with high selectivity under practical reaction conditions.

Styrene can be polymerized at room temperature in the presence of equimolar mixtures of the gold(III) complexes (NHC)AuBr3 (NHC = N-heterocyclic carbene ligand) and NaBAr'4, in the first example of a gold-induced olefin polymerization reaction.