Transition-metal-free atropo-selective synthesis of biaryl compounds based on arynes.

A modular way towards biaryls: Highly enantioenriched biphenyls can be prepared based on a transition-metal-free aryl-aryl coupling followed by efficient desymmetrization or deracemization and chemoselective functionalization (see scheme).

Bromine-lithium exchange: An efficient tool in the modular construction of biaryl ligands.

Regioselective bromine-lithium exchange reactions on polybrominated biaryls enable the modular synthesis of various polysubstituted biphenyls such as bis(dialkylphosphino)-, bis(diarylphosphino)- and dialkyl(diaryl)phosphinobiphenyls. All permutations of substituents at the ortho positions of the biphenyls are possible. In a similar manner, one can gain access to monophosphine analogues. So far, such a process, based on the effective discrimination between bromine atoms as a function of their chemical environment, has been observed only sporadically.

Catalytic palladium phosphination: modular synthesis of C1-symmetric biaryl-based diphosphines.

A new family of C(1)-symmetric bis(diphenylphosphino)biphenyls have been prepared starting from readily available ortho,ortho'-dihalobiphenyl precursors by a palladium-catalyzed C-P coupling reaction. This process does not require the use of an additional ligand. To date, the synthesis of such diphosphines, by reaction of an intermediate biphenyldiyl dianion with ClPPh(2), mainly afforded the undesired cyclic phosphafluorene derivative. So far, no synthetic pathway has been found to avoid this intramolecular reaction. Herein we report the first general and external-ligand-free palladium-catalyzed phosphination reaction that allows the synthesis of a wide variety of substituted ortho,ortho'-bis(diphenylphosphino)biphenyls. With the aim of illustrating the scope and efficiency of this methodology, we applied it to the establishment of a straightforward access to C(1)-symmetrical analogues of the most powerful ligands used in homogenous catalysis and extended it to more challenging substrates.

[1,2,3]Triazolo[1,5-a]pyridyl phosphines reflecting the influence of phosphorus lone pair orientation on spectroscopic properties.

A series of new triazolopyridine-based phosphines has been prepared. These compounds revealed unexpected spectroscopic patterns. In particular, the NMR spectra are highly dependent on the relative conformational preference of the phosphine substituent at C7. Here, we report on their complete NMR analysis, X-ray structures and DFT calculations that confirm the particular arrangement of the phosphorus lone pair orbital related to the substituent pattern of the chosen phosphine.

The [1,2,3]triazolo[1,5-a]pyridine ring: a sensitive sensor for the electronic profile of phosphorus substituents.

The unique nature of the [1,2,3]triazolo[1,5-a]pyridine reveals without any external perturbation the electronic contribution of various substituents to the phosphorus atom in phosphines, based on the equilibrium of two possible ring-chain isomers.