Rhodium-Catalyzed Intermolecular Cyclopropanation of Benzofurans, Indoles, and Alkenes via Cyclopropene Ring Opening.

The generation of metal carbenoids via ring opening of cyclopropenes by transition metals offers a simple entry into highly reactive intermediates. Herein, we describe a diastereoselective intermolecular rhodium-catalyzed cyclopropanation of heterocycles and alkenes using cyclopropenes as carbene precursors with a low loading of a commercially available rhodium catalyst. The reported method is scalable and could be performed with catalyst loadings as low as 0.2 mol %, with no impact to the reaction yield or selectivity.

Enantio- and diastereoselective conjugate borylation/Mannich cyclization.

Strategies to capitalize on enolate intermediates generated from stereoselective conjugate borylation to α,ß-unsaturated carbonyl systems are surprisingly rare despite the ubiquity of Michael acceptors, and the potential to generate valuable scaffolds bearing multiple stereocenters. Herein, we report a mild and stereoselective copper-catalyzed conjugate borylation/Mannich cyclization reaction. This strategy is feasible with a broad range of Michael acceptors, and can be leveraged to generate versatile borylated tetrahydroquinoline scaffolds bearing three contiguous stereocenters. The synthetic potential of these complex heterocycles has been explored through a series of derivatization studies.