Quantification of electrophilic activation by hydrogen-bonding organocatalysts.

A spectrophotometric sensor is described that provides a useful assessment of the LUMO-lowering provided by catalysts in Diels-Alder and Friedel-Crafts reactions. A broad range of 33 hydrogen-bonding catalysts was assessed with the sensor, and the relative rates in the above reactions spanned 5 orders of magnitude as determined via (1)H- and (2)H NMR spectroscopic measurements, respectively. The differences between the maximum wavelength shift of the sensor with and without catalyst (Δλ(max)(-1)) were found to correlate linearly with ln(k(rel)) values for both reactions, even though the substrate feature that interacts with the catalyst differs significantly (ketone vs nitro). The sensor provides an assessment of both the inherent reactivity of a catalyst architecture as well as the sensitivity of the reaction to changes within an architecture. In contrast, catalyst pK(a) values are a poor measure of reactivity, although correlations have been identified within catalyst classes.

Rapid quantification of the activating effects of hydrogen-bonding catalysts with a colorimetric sensor.

A sensor has been developed to quickly and simply assess the relative reactivity of different hydrogen-bonding catalysts. Specifically, blue-shifts seen upon treatment of H-bonding catalysts with the colorimetric compound 7-methyl-2-phenylimidazo[1,2-a]pyrazin-3(7H)-one correlate well to the K(eq) of binding to the sensor. The blue-shifts also show a high degree of correlation with relative rates in Diels-Alder reactions of methyl vinyl ketone and cyclopentadiene employing the H-bonding catalysts. The relevance of the sensor blue-shifts to the LUMO-lowering abilities of the H-bonding catalysts is discussed.