Ethylene oligomerisation chromium catalysts with unsymmetrical PCNP ligands.

Chromium(iii) complexes of chelating diphosphines, with PNP or PCNCP backbones, are excellent catalysts for ethylene tetra- and/or trimerisations. A missing link within this ligand series are unsymmetric chelating diphosphines based on a PCNP scaffold. New bidentate PCNP ligands of the type PhPCHN(R)PPh (R = 1-naphthyl or 5-quinoline groups, 2a-d) have been synthesised and shown to be extremely effective ligands for ethylene tri-/tetramerisations.

Structure and natural occurrence of stereoisomers of the fumonisin B series mycotoxins.

1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy of both fumonisin B3 and B4, as well as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis of samples of fumonisin B3 used as standards, showed in each case the presence of two stereoisomers, which could not be separated by preparative chromatography. The 2,3-anti relative configuration for the two minor stereoisomers of fumonisin B3 and B4 was deduced from the NMR data, and their 2S,3R absolute configurations were established by application of Mosher's method using the fumonisin B3 sample. Samples of fumonisin B3 and B4 can contain between 10 and 40% of fumonisin B compounds of the 3-epi series.

Stereoselective alpha-fluoroamide and alpha-fluoro-gamma-lactone synthesis by an asymmetric zwitterionic aza-Claisen rearrangement.

Background: Asymmetric introduction of fluorine alpha-to a carbonyl has become popular recently, largely because the direct fluorination of enolates by asymmetric electrophilic fluorinating reagents has improved, and as a result such compounds are becoming attractive synthons. We have sought an alternative but straightforward asymmetric method to this class of compounds, utilising the zwitterionic aza-Claisen rearrangement by reacting alpha-fluoroacid chlorides and homochiral N-allylpyrrolidines as starting materials.

Results: Treatment of N-allylmorpholine with 2-fluoropropionyl chloride under Yb(OTf)3 catalysis generated the zwitterionic aza-Claisen rearrangement product in good yield and demonstrated the chemical feasibility of the approach.

Synthesis of novel enantiopure fluorinated building blocks from acyclic chiral allylsilanes.

[reaction: see text] Homochiral beta-fluorinated gamma,delta-unsaturated carboxylic acids with an allylic fluorinated stereogenic center are available from the corresponding enantiopure allylsilanes. The key step for introduction of the fluorine substituent is an electrophilic fluorodesilylation reaction carried out in the presence of Selectfluor. Reduction of the resulting beta-fluorinated pentenoic acid into the corresponding fluorinated alcohol was also performed leading to the formation of an enantiopure second-generation fluorinated building block.