Photoredox/Cobalt-Catalyzed Phosphinyloxy Radical Addition/Cyclization Cascade: Synthesis of Phosphaisocoumarins.

A novel visible-light photoredox-catalyzed phosphinyloxy radical addition/cyclization cascade of arylphosphinic acids or arylphosphonic acid monoesters with alkynes has been developed, which provides an efficient and practical access to various phosphaisocoumarins by using a dual catalytic system containing an acridinium photosensitizer and a cobaloxime proton-reducing catalyst [Co(dmgH)2]PyCl at ambient temperature. This method has advantages of a broad substrate scope, mild condition, as well as no sacrificial oxidant.

Photoredox-promoted alkyl radical addition/semipinacol rearrangement sequences of alkenylcyclobutanols: rapid access to cyclic ketones.

Two photo-catalytic tandem alkyl radical addition/semipinacol rearrangement reactions of cycloalkanol-substituted styrenes with N-acyloxyphthalimides and O-acyl oximes have been documented. These protocols provide efficient access to functionalized cyclic ketones, and feature mild conditions (i.e., visible light irradiation, redox neutral and room temperature), broad substrate scope and excellent functional group tolerance.

Synthesis of Spiro[pyrazolin-3,3'-oxindoles] and 3-Arylcarbonylmethyl Substituted Ylideneoxindoles by 1,3-Dipolar Cycloadditions of 3-Ylideneoxindoles and In-Situ-Generated α-Diazoketones.

An efficient 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of 3-ylideneoxindoles with in-situ-generated α-diazoketones to potentially biological active spiro[pyrazolin-3,3'-oxindoles] 4 with excellent regioselectivity and diastereoselectivity and synthetically useful building block 3-arylcarbonylmethyl substituted ylideneoxindoles 5 in different conditions has been developed. This method has advantages of mild conditions, simple workup, and wide substrate scopes as well as without using any transition metal catalyst.

Enantioconvergent Copper Catalysis: In Situ Generation of the Chiral Phosphorus Ylide and Its Wittig Reactions.

The Wittig reaction, which produces alkenes from phosphorus ylides (P-ylides) and carbonyls, is one of the most powerful tools in chemical synthesis. This Nobel Prize-winning reaction is widely used in natural product synthesis, fine chemical production (i.e., medicines and agricultural agents), and polymer functionalization. Despite these great achievements, the potential of the Wittig reaction, particularly regarding the access of chiral alkene building blocks, has not been fully exploited. The main area that requires additional exploration is the development of general and practical methods to efficiently prepare chiral P-ylides. Here, we show that highly functionalized chiral P-ylides can be easily synthesized through a copper-catalyzed asymmetric propargylic alkylation reaction from phosphonium salts and racemic propargylic esters. The subsequent Wittig reactions enable the synthesis of versatile alkene building blocks, chiral α-propargylic acrylates, and α-propargylic allenoates, with a wide substrate scope and satisfactory functional group compatibility. This transformation features inexpensive transition-metal catalysts, user-friendly conditions, easily available feedstock, and high-valued products.

Visible-Light-Driven Aza-ortho-quinone Methide Generation for the Synthesis of Indoles in a Multicomponent Reaction.

A visible-light-driven radical-mediated strategy for the in situ generation of aza-ortho-quinone methides from 2-vinyl-substituted anilines and alkyl radical precursors is described. This process enables an efficient multicomponent reaction of 2-vinylanilines, halides, and sulfur ylides, and has a wide substrate scope and good functional group tolerance. Treatment of the cycloaddition products with a base leads to densely functionalized indoles in a single-flask operation.

Synthesis and herbicidal activity evaluation of novel α-amino phosphonate derivatives containing a uracil moiety.

A series of novel α-amino phosphonate derivatives containing a uracil moiety 3a-3l were designed and synthesized by a Lewis acid (magnesium perchlorate) catalyzed the Kabachnik-Fields reaction. The bioassays {in vitro, in vivo [Glass House 1 (GH1) and Glass House 2 (GH2)]} showed that most of compounds 3 exhibited excellent and selective herbicidal activities; for example, in GH1 test, compounds 3b, 3d, 3f, 3h and 3j showed excellent and wide spectrum herbicidal activities at the dose of 1000 g/ha, and compounds 3b and 3j exhibited 100% inhibition activities against the four plants in both post- and pre-emergence treatments. Moreover, most of compounds 3 showed higher inhibition against Amaranthus retroflexus and Digitaria sanguinalis than Glyphosate did in pre-emergence treatment. In GH2 test, the four compounds (3b, 3d, 3h and 3j) exhibited 100% inhibition against Solanum nigrum, Amaranthus retroflexus and Ipomoea hederacea in post-emergence treatment and displayed 100% inhibition against Solanum nigrum, Amaranthus retroflexus in pre-emergence treatment at the rate of 250 g/ha, and compound 3b showed the best and broad spectrum herbicidal activities against the six test plants. However, the four compounds displayed weaker herbicidal activities against Lolium perenne and Echinochloa crus-galli than the other four plants at the rate of 250 g/ha in both pre- and post-emergence treatments. So, compounds 3 can be used as a lead compound for further structure optimization for developing potential selective herbicidal agent. Their preliminary structure-activity relationships were also investigated.

Synthesis and Biological Activity Evaluation of Novel α-Amino Phosphonate Derivatives Containing a Pyrimidinyl Moiety as Potential Herbicidal Agents.

To find novel high-activity and low-toxicity herbicide lead compounds with novel herbicidal mode of action, series of novel α-amino phosphonate derivatives containing a pyrimidinyl moiety, I, II, III, and IV, were designed and synthesized by Lewis acid (magnesium perchlorate) catalyzed Mannich-type reaction of aldehydes, amines, and phosphites. Their structures were clearly identified by spectroscopy data (IR, (1)H NMR, (31)P NMR, EI-MS) and elemental analyses. The bioassay [in vitro, in vivo (GH1 and GH2)] showed that most compounds I exhibited good herbicidal activities; for example, the activities of compounds Ib, Ic, Ig, Ii, Ik, and Im were as good as the positive control herbicides (acetochlor, atrazine, mesotrione, and glyphosate). However, their structural isomers II and III and analogues IV did not display any herbicidal activities in vivo, although some of them possessed selective inhibitory activity against Arabidopsis thaliana in vitro. Interestingly, it was found that compounds IVs, IVt, and IVl showed selective insecticidal activities against Aphis species or Plutella xylostella, respectively. Their preliminary herbicidal mode of action and structure-activity relationships were also studied.

Asymmetric trapping of zwitterionic intermediates by sulphur ylides in a palladium-catalysed decarboxylation-cycloaddition sequence.

Through nearly 50 years of development, sulphur ylides have been established as versatile and powerful reagents for the construction of carbocycles and heterocycles. Despite advances, two important and yet elusive bottlenecks continue to inhibit the advancement of this chemistry: a limited number of reagents with polar groups to react with sulphur ylides, and the wide utilization of chiral auxiliaries or substrates to achieve asymmetric cycloaddition processes in the majority of known reports. Herein, we apply an asymmetric palladium catalysis strategy to the chemistry of sulphur ylides to address these two fundamental problems. We thus achieve an unprecedented decarboxylation-cycloaddition sequence of cyclic allylic esters with sulphur ylides through the enantioselective trapping of Pd-stabilized zwitterionic intermediates by the ylides. As a result, a series of biologically and synthetically important 3-vinyl indolines are rapidly assembled with a high reaction efficiency and stereoselectivity.

FeCl3-mediated three-component cascade reaction: an effective approach to the construction of highly functionalized pyrrolo[1,2-c]quinazolinones.

An unexpected FeCl3-mediated three-component cascade reaction has been used to construct structurally diverse pyrrolo[1,2-c]quinazolinone derivatives with potential biological activities. This method has advantages of mild conditions, simple work-up, as well as wide substrate scope, which makes it a powerful approach to the synthesis of diverse pyrrolo[1,2-c]quinazolinones. This cascade reaction involves 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition between azomethine ylides and allenoates, followed by intramolecular nucleophilic addition in the presence of FeCl3. The obtained products could be easily transformed into derivatives with the pyrrolo[2,3-c]quinazoline alkaloid skeleton.

DABCO and Bu3P catalyzed [4 + 2] and [3 + 2] cycloadditions of 3-acyl-2H-chromen-ones and ethyl 2,3-butadienoate.

DABCO-catalyzed [4 + 2] and Bu(3)P-catalyzed [3 + 2] cycloadditions between 3-acyl-2H-chromen-ones and ethyl 2,3-butadienoate were developed for the synthesis of dihydropyran-fused and cyclopenten-fused chromen-2-ones with high regio- and stereo-selectivities, respectively. The synthetic procedures have the advantages of mild reaction conditions, convenient handling and good atom economy as well as a wide substrate scope, which make this method useful for the synthesis of potentially biologically active dihydropyran-fused and cyclopenten-fused chromen-2-ones derivatives. Possible reaction mechanisms have also been proposed on the basis of previous literature and our investigation.

An organocatalytic Michael-aldol cascade: formal [3+2] annulation to construct enantioenriched spirocyclic oxindole derivatives.

An efficient organocatalytic Michael-aldol cascade reaction for the asymmetric synthesis of spirocyclic oxindole derivatives fused with tetrahydrothiophenes has been developed through a formal [3+2] annulation strategy.

Synthesis, crystal structure, insecticidal activity and DFT study on the geometry and vibration of O-(E)-1-{1-[(6-chloropyridin-3-yl)methyl]-5-methyl-1H-1,2,3-triazol-4-yl}ethyleneamino-O-ethyl-O-phenylphosphorothioate.

The title compound, O-(E)-1-{1-[(6-chloropyridin-3-yl)methyl]-5-methyl-1H-1,2,3-triazol-4-yl}ethyleneamino-O-ethyl-O-phenylphosphorothioate, has been synthesized via the condensation reaction of 1-{1-[(6-chloropyridin-3-yl)methyl]-5-methyl-1H-1,2,3-triazol-4-yl}ethanone oxime and O-ethyl-O-phenylphosphorochloridothioate in the presence of NaOH powder in refluxing EtOH. Its structure was characterized by (1)H NMR, FTIR, Raman, elemental analysis and X-ray single crystal diffraction. The results of preliminary bioassays indicated that the title compound displays good insecticidal activity. Density functional (DFT) calculations have been carried out for the title compound by using the Becke-Lee-Yang-Parr's three-parameter hybrid functional (B3LYP) method at 6-31G and 6-31G basis sets. The calculated results show that the predicted geometry can well reproduce the structural parameters. The vibrational wave numbers of the title compound were calculated at same level. Predicted vibrational frequencies have been assigned and compared with experimental IR and Raman spectra and they are supported each other.

[Chromatographic analysis on tryptic hydrolysis of whole casein].

Tryptic hydrolysis of whole casein was investigated by high performance size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) in combination with the degree of hydrolysis (DH). In terms of HPSEC chromatograms obtained at different DH values, the complex process of enzymatic reaction and the relative molecular mass distribution of multiple hydrolysates were quantitatively characterized. Based on the information of casein micelle structure, the possible reaction mechanism was deduced from a series of chromatograms. Being taken into account the primary structure of whole casein and the target amino acid of trypsin, the distribution of theoretical peptides were accurately calculated by determining the split sites of complete enzymatic hydrolysis. According to the relationship between retention time and relative molecular mass, the corresponding HPSEC absorption peaks of active peptides in hydrolysates were identified, and caseinophosphopeptides sequences were also characterized.