Transesterification/Acylation of secondary alcohols mediated by N-heterocyclic carbene catalysts.

N-Heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) are efficient catalysts for transesterification/acylation reactions involving secondary alcohols. The catalytic transformations are carried out employing low catalyst loadings in convenient reaction times at room temperature.

N-heterocyclic carbenes as versatile nucleophilic catalysts for transesterification/acylation reactions.

[reaction: see text] Imidazol-2-ylidenes, a family of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHC), are efficient catalysts in the transesterification between esters and alcohols. Low catalyst loadings of aryl- or alkyl-substituted NHC catalysts mediate the acylation of alcohols with vinyl acetate in convenient reaction times at room temperature. Commercially available and more difficult to cleave methyl esters react with numerous alcohols in the presence of alkyl-substituted NHC to form efficiently the corresponding esters in very short reaction times.

An air-stable palladium/N-heterocyclic carbene complex and its reactivity in aryl amination.

[reaction: see text] The synthesis and characterization of [Pd(IPr)Cl(2)](2) (1), an air- and moisture-stable complex, is reported. The utilization of 1 as a catalyst for amination of aryl chlorides and bromides with a variety of amine coupling partners under mild conditions is described. The amination reactions with 1 show a remarkable insensitivity to oxygen and water, and thus the amination reactions could be performed in air on the benchtop with undried reagent grade solvents and substrates with small effects on reaction times and conversions.

Alkali Metal Alkoxide Clusters: Convenient Catalysts for the Synthesis of Methylphosphonates.

Alkali metal alkoxides are good catalysts (1-8 mol %) for promoting the interchange reaction between carbonyl and phosphorus esters. This reactivity leads to convenient methodologies for the synthesis of symmetric and unsymmetric alkyl-substituted methylphosphonates from dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP). Reactions rates are high with initial turnover frequencies (N(t)) in excess of 1 x 10(6) h(-)(1) observed and with KO(t)Bu > NaO(t)Bu > LiO(t)Bu. The reactions were sensitive to steric effects in the product methylphosphonates with reaction rates paralleling the size of the transferring alkoxide (n-alkyl > isoalkyl >> tert-alkyl). For the test reaction DMMP + isopropyl acetate, substitution kinetics were consistent with a scenario wherein each methoxide is replaced sequentially, and the substitution rate for the second displacement is substantially slower than the first. Kinetic studies on the first substitution process were indicative of a concentration dependent rate law; a scenario most easily accounted for by a coupled transesterification wherein alkoxide reversibly and independently adds to phosphonate and ester.