Formation of N-alkylpyrroles via intermolecular redox amination.

A wide variety of aldehydes, ketones, and lactols undergo redox amination when allowed to react with 3-pyrroline in the presence of a mild Brønsted acid catalyst. This reaction utilizes the inherent reducing power of 3-pyrroline to perform the equivalent of a reductive amination to form alkyl pyrroles. In doing so, the reaction avoids stoichiometric reducing agents that are typically associated with reductive aminations. Moreover, the redox amination protocol allows access to alkyl pyrroles that cannot be made via standard reductive amination.

Palladium(II)-catalyzed cyclization of unsaturated hydroperoxides for the synthesis of 1,2-dioxanes.

The cyclization of gamma,delta-unsaturated tertiary hydroperoxides in the presence of a palladium(II) catalyst afforded 1,2-dioxanes resembling biologically active natural products. A variety of substrates were screened, and synthetic manipulations were accomplished to construct compounds with structural similarity to antimalarial targets.

Synthesis of allyl selenides by palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative coupling.

This communication details the Pd-catalyzed decarboxylation of selenocarbonates; use of a chiral nonracemic catalyst affords enantioenriched allyl selenides which undergo stereospecific [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangements to form enantioenriched allylic amines and chlorides.

Palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative sp3-sp3 coupling of nitrobenzene acetic esters.

Allylic esters of nitrobenzene acetic acids undergo facile palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative coupling. Both mono- and dinitroarene substrates give high yields of the coupled products. Moreover, the rates of the reactions suggest that decarboxylation is rate-limiting and substrates that sterically disfavor attainment of the reactive conformation for decarboxylation are not viable. Finally, reduction of the product nitroarenes to the corresponding anilines provides access to a variety of heterocycles including quinolines and dihydroquinolones.