A Unifying Bioinspired Synthesis of (-)-Asperaculin A and (-)-Penifulvin D.

The first syntheses of the isomeric dioxafenestrene natural products (-)-asperaculin A and (-)-penifulvin D are reported. Each target is formed selectively by choice of oxidant in a final divergent bioinspired Baeyer-Villiger (BV) reaction. Density functional theory calculations reveal that electrostatic interactions between the oxidant leaving group and the lactone motif accounts for a reversal of selectivity with H2O2/H3O+ compared to peracids. Synthetic features include forging the polycyclic carbon framework with a diastereoselective meta-photocycloaddition biased by an ether substituent at the aryl α-position. The encumbered tertiary alcohol was installed by cyanation of a ketone intermediate followed by nonaqueous hydrolysis of the resulting delicate cyanohydrin.

N-heterocyclic carbene tethered amido complexes of palladium and platinum.

With a view to applications in bifunctional catalysis, a modular cross-coupling strategy has been used to prepare amine bis(imidazolium) salts (3a and 3b) and an amine mono(imidazolium) salt (6) as precursors to chelating amido-NHC ligands. Treating the pro-ligands 3 with 3 equivalents of the bulky base KHMDS and Pd(OAc)(2) or PtCl(2)(COD) gave the four amido bis(N-heterocyclic carbene) pincer complexes [CNC-R]M-I [M = Pd (7) or Pt (8); R = i-Pr (a) or n-Bu (b)], including the first examples of platinum complexes of a CNC ligand. The reaction of 7a with AgOTf in pyridine gave the cationic complex {[CNC-i-Pr]Pd-py}OTf (9a). Heating a mixture of amine mono(imidazolium) salt 6 with PdCl(2) or K(2)PtCl(4), K(2)CO(3) and KI in pyridine at 100 °C gave the complexes [C,NH]MI(2)py [M = Pd (10) or Pt (11)], in which the amine arm of the NHC ligand is not deprotonated and does not coordinate to the metal. For a solution of 10 in 1,4-dioxane, deprotonation of the amine occurred in a biphasic reaction with aqueous KOH at 40 °C, giving the dimeric amido complex {[C,N]Pd(µ-OH)}(2) (12). The more inert Pt analogue 11 was unreactive under the same conditions. Solid-state structures of the complexes 7a, 7b, 9a, 10, 11 and 12 have been determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction.