The benzannulation reaction of Fischer carbene complexes is investigated under conditions where the reaction of the carbene complex is occurring in the presence of two different alkynes. A series of competition experiments are examined where the effects of various structural factors are explored by pitting 10 different carbene complexes with 11 different alkynes. Terminal alkynes will react sel...

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations with B3LYP and M06 functionals elucidated the reactivities of alkynes and Z/E selectivity of cyclodecatriene products in the Ni-catalyzed [4 + 4 + 2] cycloadditions of dienes and alkynes. The Ni-mediated oxidative cyclization of butadienes determines the Z/E selectivity. Only the oxidative cyclization of one s-cis to one s-trans butadiene is facile a...

The rhodium(III)-catalyzed hydroarylation of internal alkynes is described. Good yields are obtained for a variety of alkynes, and excellent regioselectivity is observed for unsymmetrically substituted alkynes. The reaction also gives good yields for a range of arenes. Preliminary mechanistic investigations suggest that this reaction proceeds through arene metalation with the cationic rhodium c...

Regioselective synthesis of polysubstituted benzofurans using a copper catalyst and molecular oxygen from phenols and alkynes in a one-pot procedure has been reported. The transformation consists of a sequential nucleophilic addition of phenols to alkynes and oxidative cyclization. A wide variety of phenols and alkynes can be used in the same manner.

gem-Selective cross-dimerization and trimerization of silylacetylenes with alkynes via C-H activation using a rhodium(I)-pyridine-Nheterocyclic carbene catalyst have been developed. This protocol is applicable to variety of aliphatic or aromatic terminal alkynes, internal alkynes and gem-1,3-disubsituted enynes to afford the corresponding enynes and dienynes with high regioand stereoselectiviti...

A convenient method for construction of polycyclic fused nitrogen-containing heterocycles has been developed. The methodology involves palladium-catalyzed intermolecular carbopalladation-annulation cascade reaction of haloaryl heterocyclic derivatives with different alkynes under relatively mild reaction conditions. Thus, the palladium-catalyzed cascade cyclization of bromophenyl derivatives of...

Many metals or their complexes can catalyze the cyclotrimerization of alkynes to give benzene derivatives.1-9 Among these catalysts, palladium chloride10 and its bis(benzonitrile) complex11 are the most convenient. In these reactions, the yields of benzene derivatives generally depend on the substituents of alkynes. In the past 50 years, the regioand chemoselectivity for the cyclotrimerization ...

A highly regio- and enantioselective cobalt-catalyzed sequential hydrosilylation/hydrogenation of alkynes was developed to afford chiral silanes. This one-pot method is operationally simple and atom economic. It makes use of relatively simple and readily available starting materials, namely alkynes, silanes, and hydrogen gas, to construct more valuable chiral silanes. Primary mechanistic studie...

By the use of an N-heterocyclic carbene copper(I) complex as a catalyst, the boracarboxylation of various alkynes (e.g., diaryl alkynes, aryl/alkyl alkynes, and phenylacetylene) with a diborane compound and carbon dioxide has been achieved for the first time, affording the α,β-unsaturated β-boralactone derivatives regio- and stereoselectively via a borylcupration/carboxylation cascade. Some imp...

We report an enantioselective coupling between alkynes and indoles. A Rh-hydride catalyst isomerizes alkynes to generate a metal-allyl species that can be trapped with both aromatic and heteroaromatic nucleophiles.