Chemists have long envied the ability of enzymes to manipulate reaction energetics and specificity through steric confinement and precise functional-group interactions. The enormous rate accelerations that enzymes achieve at modest temperatures may be attributed to their high degree of complexity, and the synthetic chemist is hard pressed to create such well-constructed catalytic scaffolds. Yet...

In this work, we present optimal control calculations in a dissipative environment. To this end, the auxiliary density matrix method describing the dissipative quantum dynamics is combined with optimal control theory. The resulting approach, which is nonperturbative in the laser-system interaction, is applied to model the control of Cope's isomerization of the methyl-cyclopentadienylcarboxylate...

Many reactions feature symmetry variation along the reaction path on the potential energy surface. The interconversion of the point group symmetry of the stationary points can be characteristic of these processes. Increasing the temperature, however, leads to the loss of symmetry in its traditional yes-no language. We find that in such cases the instantaneous distance of the molecular structure...

The catalytic asymmetric aminoallylation of chiral aldehydes is developed as a new method for the catalyst controlled synthesis of syn- and anti-1,3-aminoalcohols. This methodology is highlighted in the synthesis of the sedum alkaloids (+)-sedridine and (+)-allosedridine both of which have their final carbon incorporated during closure of the piperidine ring via a hydroformylation with formalde...

Tricarbonylchromium complexes of benzocyclobutenone, benzocyclobutenedione, and 1,3-indandione are readily prepared by hydrolysis of the complexes of the corresponding acetals. Reduction of the benzocyclobutenone complex gives rise to an oxyanion-driven ring opening to the corresponding ortho-quinodimethane intermediate, which can be trapped with dienophiles. Addition of 1-ethoxy-1-lithioethene...

A vinylsilane-ketiminium ion cyclization involving iminium species derived from amines 6 and 7 was investigated experimentally as a possible approach to some biologically interesting 1-azaspirocycles. However, even under conditions of microwave irradiation at high temperatures no such cyclization was observed whereas (in line with previous results) the corresponding vinylsilane-aldiminium ion c...