A sustainable metal and base-free direct amidation of esters using water as a green solvent.

Herein, we report a simple and efficient synthetic approach for direct amidation of esters via C(acyl)-O bond cleavage without any additional reagents or catalysts, using only water as a green solvent. Subsequently, the reaction byproduct is recovered and utilized for the next phase of ester synthesis. This method emphasized metal-free, additive-free, and base-free characteristics making it a new, sustainable, and eco-friendly way to realize direct amide bond formation. In addition, the synthesis of the drug molecule diethyltoluamide and the Gram-scale synthesis of a representative amide are demonstrated.

Nickel-Catalyzed Stereodivergent Synthesis of E- and Z-Alkenes by Hydrogenation of Alkynes.

A convenient protocol for stereodivergent hydrogenation of alkynes to E- and Z-alkenes by using nickel catalysts was developed. Simple Ni(NO3 )2 ⋅6 H2 O as a catalyst precursor formed active nanoparticles, which were effective for the semihydrogenation of several alkynes with high selectivity for the Z-alkene (Z/E>99:1). Upon addition of specific multidentate ligands (triphos, tetraphos), the resulting molecular catalysts were highly selective for the E-alkene products (E/Z>99:1). Mechanistic studies revealed that the Z-alkene-selective catalyst was heterogeneous whereas the E-alkene-selective catalyst was homogeneous. In the latter case, the alkyne was first hydrogenated to a Z-alkene, which was subsequently isomerized to the E-alkene. This proposal was supported by density functional theory calculations. This synthetic methodology was shown to be generally applicable in >40 examples and scalable to multigram-scale experiments.

Selective Hydrogenation of Nitriles to Primary Amines by using a Cobalt Phosphine Catalyst.

A general procedure for the catalytic hydrogenation of nitriles to primary amines by using a non-noble metal-based system is presented. Co(acac)3 in combination with tris[2-(dicyclohexylphosphino)ethyl]phosphine efficiently catalyzes the selective hydrogenation of a wide range of (hetero)aromatic and aliphatic nitriles to give the corresponding amines.

Efficient Rh-catalyzed C-H borylation of arene derivatives under photochemical conditions.

Photocatalysis allows innovations in organic synthesis. Among the various catalytic reactions, CH-functionalizations offer valuable possibilities for the refinement of easily available building blocks. In this respect, catalytic borylation is of interest, too. So far, most of the catalytic borylation reactions are performed under thermal conditions at comparably high temperatures. Here, we describe a new synthetic route for efficient borylation reactions of arenes using a photocatalytic pathway. This novel approach allows the synthesis of a broad variety of borylated arenes and heteroarenes under mild conditions. Applying trans-[Rh(PMe3)2(CO)Cl] as an active photocatalyst and HBPin as an boron source, we achieved high TON. A catalytic cycle that relies on a Rh(I)-Rh(III) interconversion is proposed.

Hindered aryl bromides for regioselective palladium-catalysed direct arylation at less favourable C5-carbon of 3-substituted thiophenes.

The use of the congested aryl bromide 2-bromo-1,3-dichlorobenzene as coupling partner allows to modify the regioselectivity of the arylation of 3-substituted thiophene derivatives in favour of carbon C5. The coupling of this aryl bromide with a variety of 3-substituted thiophenes gave in all cases the desired 5-arylation products in moderate to good yields using only 0.5 mol % of a phosphine-free and air-stable palladium catalyst. Then, from these 5-arylthiophenes, a second palladium-catalysed C-H bond functionalization at C2 of the thiophene ring allows the synthesis of 2,5-diarylthiophenes with two different aryl units.

Lewis acid-catalyzed oxidation of benzylamines to benzamides.

A novel Lewis acid-catalyzed oxidation of benzylamines to the corresponding amides has been developed. Using 10 mol% of ZnBr(2) or FeCl(3) as the catalyst and TBHP as the oxidant, amides were produced under mild conditions.

Palladium-catalyzed direct arylation of thiophenes bearing SO2R substituents.

The palladium-catalyzed direct arylation of SO(2)R-substituted thiophene derivatives was found to proceed regioselectively at C5 and in high yields using a variety of aryl bromides and as low as 0.5-0.1 mol % of phosphine-free Pd(OAc)(2) as the catalyst. For these reactions, sulfonyls, sulfonamides, or even a sulfonic ester as the thiophene substituents were successfully employed.