A genetic optimization strategy with generality in asymmetric organocatalysis as a primary target.

A catalyst possessing a broad substrate scope, in terms of both turnover and enantioselectivity, is sometimes called "general". Despite their great utility in asymmetric synthesis, truly general catalysts are difficult or expensive to discover traditional high-throughput screening and are, therefore, rare. Existing computational tools accelerate the evaluation of reaction conditions from a pre-defined set of experiments to identify the most general ones, but cannot generate entirely new catalysts with enhanced substrate breadth.

All That ─Synthesis of Dispersion Energy Donor-Substituted Benzenes.

We report a general and scalable method for the synthesis of all--trisubstituted benzenes from readily available 3,5-disubstituted catechols. Oxidation and [4 + 2] cycloaddition with acetylene dienophiles generate a bicyclo[2.2.