Excising the nitrogen in secondary amines, and coupling the two residual fragments is a skeletal editing strategy that can be used to construct molecules with new skeletons, but which has been largely unexplored. Here we report a versatile method of N-atom excision from N-heterocycles. The process uses readily available N-heterocycles as substrates, and proceeds by N-sulfonylazidonation followed by the rearrangement of sulfamoyl azide intermediates, providing various cyclic products.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn efficient synthesis of 4-methyleneproline derivatives has been developed through an Rh-catalyzed [4 + 1] cycloaddition strategy using 3-methyleneazetidines and diazo compounds. The reaction proceeds under very mild conditions with a high degree of chemoselectivity, and competing experiments revealed that it is the preferred reaction, dominant over the C-H insertion, O-H insertion, and olefin cyclopropanation reactions which are commonly observed in Rh carbene chemistry. This method can incorporate the proline ester scaffold in pharmaceuticals and natural products.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA versatile silver-promoted oxidative cascade reaction of N-aryl-3-alkylideneazetidines with carboxylic acids is reported, providing a very efficient pathway to functionalized fused pyridines. This method allows introduction of fused pyridine ring systems to heterocycles, drugs, and natural products. A mechanistic study revealed that silver salt is essential for the chemo- and regioselective ring expansion, sequential oxidative nucleophilic additions, and oxidative aromatization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBy developing a mild Ni-catalyzed system, a method for direct borylation of sp(2) and sp(3) C-N bonds has been established. The key to this hightly efficient C-N bond borylative cleavage depends on the appropriate choice of the nickel catalyst Ni(COD)2, ICy·HCl as a ligand, and the use of 2-ethoxyethanol as the cosolvent. This transformation shows good functional group compatibility and can serve as a powerful synthetic tool for gram-scale synthesis and late-stage C-N borylation of complex compounds.
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