Relay Catalysis for Selective Aerobic Oxidative Esterification of Primary Alcohols with Methanol.

Esters are bulk and fine chemicals and ubiquitous in polymers, bioactive compounds, and natural products. Their traditional synthetic approach is the esterification of carboxylic acids or their activated derivatives with alcohols. Herein, a bimetallic relay catalytic protocol was developed for the aerobic esterification of one alcohol in the presence of a slowly oxidizing alcohol, which has been identified as methanol.

Rhodium-Catalyzed Dynamic Kinetic [4+2] Cycloaddition of Allene-1,3-Dienes.

Rh-catalyzed dynamic kinetic intramolecular [4+2] cycloaddition reaction of 1,3-disubstituted allene-1,3-dienes afforded cis-fused [4.3.0]bicyclic products with an excellent chemo-, diastereo-, and enantio-selectivity.

Chirality memory of α-methylene-π-allyl iridium species.

Chirality is one of the most important types of steric information in nature. In addition to central chirality, axial chirality has been catching more and more attention from scientists. However, although much attention has recently been paid to the creation of axial chirality and the chirality transfer of allenes, no study has been disclosed as to the memory of such an axial chirality.

A palladium-catalyzed approach to allenic aromatic ethers and first total synthesis of terricollene A.

A palladium-catalyzed C-O bond formation reaction between phenols and allenylic carbonates to give 2,3-allenic aromatic ethers with decent to excellent yields under mild reaction conditions has been described. A variety of synthetically useful functional groups are tolerated and the synthetic utility of this method has been demonstrated through a series of transformations of the allene moiety. By applying this reaction as the key step, the total syntheses of naturally occurring allenic aromatic ethers, eucalyptene and terricollene A (first synthesis; 4.