Decarboxylative cross-nucleophile coupling via ligand-to-metal charge transfer photoexcitation of Cu(II) carboxylates.

Reactions that enable carbon-nitrogen, carbon-oxygen and carbon-carbon bond formation lie at the heart of synthetic chemistry. However, substrate prefunctionalization is often needed to effect such transformations without forcing reaction conditions. The development of direct coupling methods for abundant feedstock chemicals is therefore highly desirable for the rapid construction of complex molecular scaffolds.

Nickel-Mediated Cross-Coupling of Boronic Acids and Phthalimides for the Synthesis of -Substituted Benzamides.

The decarbonylative coupling of phthalimides with aryl boronic acids provides ready access to a broad range of -substituted benzamides. This nickel-mediated methodology extends reactivity from previously described air-sensitive diorganozinc reagents of limited availability to easily handled and widely commercially available boronic acids. The decarbonylative coupling is tolerant of a broad range of functional groups and demonstrates little sensitivity to steric factors on either of the coupling partners.

Site-Selective Alkoxylation of Benzylic C-H Bonds by Photoredox Catalysis.

Methods that enable the direct C-H alkoxylation of complex organic molecules are significantly underdeveloped, particularly in comparison to analogous strategies for C-N and C-C bond formation. In particular, almost all methods for the incorporation of alcohols by C-H oxidation require the use of the alcohol component as a solvent or co-solvent. This condition limits the practical scope of these reactions to simple, inexpensive alcohols.