Due to the high versatility of chiral cyanohydrins, the catalytic asymmetric cyanation reaction of carbonyl compounds has attracted widespread interest. However, efficient protocols that function at a preparative scale with low catalyst loading are still rare. Here, asymmetric counteranion-directed Lewis acid organocatalysis proves to be remarkably successful in addressing this problem and enab...

Examples from different research areas of Siegfried Hünig are displayed to remind us that organic chemistry owes much more than Hünig's base this exceptionally versatile and creative chemist. The main lines dealing with the synthesis physical characterization new dyes, multistage redox systems, metals will be presented as well his contributions enamine chemistry, discovery diimine a hydrogenati...

Thiocyanates and trifluoromethyl sulfides are important compounds and have classically been synthesized via multistep procedures together with the formation of significant amounts of byproducts. Herein, we demonstrate an oxidative nucleophilic strategy for the synthesis of thiocyanates and trifluoromethyl sulfides from thiol starting materials using nucleophilic reagents such as TMSCN and TMSCF...

A general method for the one-pot, three-component Strecker reaction of ketones was developed using Brønsted acids as organocatalysts. A series of alpha-aminonitriles were obtained in good to excellent yields (79-99%). A preliminary extension to a catalytic enantioselective three-component Strecker reaction of ketones (up to 40% ee) is also described.

A series of unsymmetric salen ligands derived from 1,2-diaminocyclohexane bearing an appended Lewis base on the three-position of one aromatic ring were synthesized by the reaction of various functional salicyaldehydes with the condensation product of 1,2-diaminocyclohexane mono(hydrogen chloride) and 3,5-di-tert-butylsalicylaldehyde. These ligands in conjunction with Ti(O(i)Pr)(4) exhibited ex...

The first total synthesis of gelsemoxonine (1) has been accomplished. Divinylcyclopropane-cycloheptadiene rearrangement of the highly functionalized substrate was successfully applied to assemble the spiro-quaternary carbon center connected to the bicyclic seven-membered core structure. A one-pot isomerization reaction of the α,β-unsaturated aldehyde to the saturated ester via the TMSCN-DBU rea...

We proposed a strategy to synthesize mesoporous inorganic salt particles using the special properties of ionic liquid (IL) mixtures, and hollow mesoporous LaF3, NdF3, and YF3 particles were synthesized and characterized using different techniques. The size of the mesopores in the salt particles was about 4 nm, and the materials were full of crystal defects. The LaF3, NdF3 and YF3 particles were...

A moderately stable hexacoordinated sulfur(VI) compound with four different kinds of ligands, CF3SF2(CN)2C1, results when CF3SF4CI is reacted with (CH3)3SiCN. The latter compound also gives F2S(CN)2 and (CF3)2S(CN)2 with SF4 and (CF3)2SF2, respectively. These tetracoordinated suifur(IV) compounds decompose rapidly at 25 °C but are stable at lower temperatures. With OSCl2 and SC12, the white sol...