A facile synthetic route to benzimidazolium salts bearing bulky aromatic N-substituents

• Gabriele Grieco,
• Olivier Blacque and
• Heinz Berke

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 1656–1666, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.182

• : benzimidazolium salts; bulky ligands; cyclization; ligand design; N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHC); ring formation; Introduction Imidazole-based N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) are stable systems serving as ancillary ligands mainly to construct organometallic complexes. These NHCs are sterically and electronically

Grubbs–Hoveyda type catalysts bearing a dicationic N-heterocyclic carbene for biphasic olefin metathesis reactions in ionic liquids

• Maximilian Koy,
• Hagen J. Altmann,
• Benjamin Autenrieth,
• Wolfgang Frey and
• Michael R. Buchmeiser

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 1632–1638, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.178

• can also be prepared with the aid of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) that bear pendant ionic groups (Figure 1) [10][16][17][18][19]. We addressed that issue by preparing a novel ionic Ru-NHC-alkylidene using NHCs with ionic groups. Here we report our results. Results and Discussion Catalyst synthesis

Latent ruthenium–indenylidene catalysts bearing a N-heterocyclic carbene and a bidentate picolinate ligand

• Thibault E. Schmid,
• Florian Modicom,
• Adrien Dumas,
• Etienne Borré,
• Loic Toupet,
• Olivier Baslé and
• Marc Mauduit

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 1541–1546, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.169

• of cocatalyst. While first examples of latent catalysts were based on phosphine-containing ruthenium complexes bearing a Schiff base ligand (O–N) [9] replacement of the phosphine ligand by sterically demanding and strongly σ-donor N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) afforded catalysts with improved

Selected synthetic strategies to cyclophanes

• Sambasivarao Kotha,
• Mukesh E. Shirbhate and
• Gopalkrushna T. Waghule

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 1274–1331, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.142

• to chiral concave N-heterocyclic carbenes. Molecular encapsulation was achieved by using double RCM to generate insulated oligoynes 204. Here, the masked hexayne plays an important role to lock the flanking chains [158]. The synthesis of planer chiral cyclophanes is a difficult task owing to the

Highly selective palladium–benzothiazole carbene-catalyzed allylation of active methylene compounds under neutral conditions

• Antonio Monopoli,
• Pietro Cotugno,
• Carlo G. Zambonin,
• Francesco Ciminale and
• Angelo Nacci

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 994–999, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.111

• activity is still mandatory in these kind of reactions. Among various ligands, N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) have gained greater importance in organometallic chemistry. Unlike phosphanes, NHCs are not toxic and insensitive to air, heat and moisture. Moreover, the introduction of substituents onto the

Cross-dehydrogenative coupling for the intermolecular C–O bond formation

• Igor B. Krylov,
• Vera A. Vil’ and
• Alexander O. Terent’ev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 92–146, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.13

• are used as the solvents or are taken in a large excess relative to the CH-reagent. 2.3 Reactions catalyzed by N-heterocyclic carbenes N-heterocyclic nucleophilic carbenes 105 have found use for the oxidative esterification. Scheme 23 shows, in a simplified way, the proposed mechanism of this type of

• quinone 116 afforded esters 117. This method was also applied to the synthesis of esters 117a–c from amino alcohols (Scheme 25) [115][116]. Different conditions were proposed for the cross-dehydrogenative C–O coupling of aldehydes with alcohols and phenols catalyzed by N-heterocyclic carbenes (118, 129

• -heterocyclic carbenes was used for the kinetic separation of enantiomers of alcohols [125][126]. 2.4 Reactions using halogen-containing oxidative systems This section considers cross-dehydrogenative C–O coupling reactions with aldehydes and primary alcohols as C-reagents in which halogens and their compounds

A novel 4-aminoantipyrine-Pd(II) complex catalyzes Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling reactions of aryl halides

• Claudia A. Contreras-Celedón,
• Darío Mendoza-Rayo,
• José A. Rincón-Medina and
• Luis Chacón-García

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 2821–2826, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.299

• develop a stable and efficient Pd catalyst for these reactions. Recently, palladium complexes containing imidazole-imines [12], binary nanoclusters [13], N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) [14], nanoparticles [15], palladacycles [16], and Schiff bases [17] have been developed as highly effective phosphine

Comparing kinetic profiles between bifunctional and binary type of Zn(salen)-based catalysts for organic carbonate formation

• Carmen Martín and
• Arjan W. Kleij

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 1817–1825, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.191

• coupling reactions are essential to control the process selectivity (cyclic versus polycarbonate formation, Scheme 1) and to improve the activity of the used catalysts. Several computational investigations have been reported in this area focusing on catalysts comprising ionic liquids [30], N-heterocyclic

• carbenes [31], polyphenolic compounds [32], quaternary ammonium salts [33] or metal-containing complexes [34][35][36][37]. Also, a detailed theoretical analysis combined with experimental evidences using a Zn(salphen) complex has been reported [36]. Beside these computational activities, experimental

Dimerisation, rhodium complex formation and rearrangements of N-heterocyclic carbenes of indazoles

• Zong Guan,
• Jan C. Namyslo,
• Martin H. H. Drafz,
• Martin Nieger and
• Andreas Schmidt

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 832–840, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.79

• . Virtasen aukio 1), FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland 10.3762/bjoc.10.79 Abstract Deprotonation of indazolium salts at low temperatures gives N-heterocyclic carbenes of indazoles (indazol-3-ylidenes) which can be trapped as rhodium complexes (X-ray analysis). In the absence of Rh, the indazol-3

• review articles dealing with syntheses [1][2][3][4], synthetic potentials [4], and biological activities [4][5] of this ring system. In view of the rapid development of the class of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] it is not unexpected, that attention was also directed towards the

• NHCs of indazole which have been generated and applied in heterocyclic synthesis (vide infra) as well as in complex chemistry [13]. Undoubtedly the N-heterocyclic carbenes of imidazole, imidazoline and the triazoles play the most important roles as ligands in metal-organic chemistry [14] or as

Modulating NHC catalysis with fluorine

• Yannick P. Rey and
• Ryan Gilmour

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 2812–2820, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.316

• derivatives are presented and the conformations are discussed. Upon deprotonation, the fluorinated triazolium salts generate catalytically active N-heterocyclic carbenes, which can then participate in the enantioselective Steglich rearrangement of oxazolyl carbonates to C-carboxyazlactones (e.r. up to 87.0

• converted to the respective N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) by simple deprotonation. Given the importance of NHCs in modern organic synthesis [23][24][25][26][27][28] it was envisaged that these systems would be intriguing candidates for investigation. Moreover, structural information gleaned from the

• (e.r. 62.5:37.5), although the reactions did not display the same sensitivity to changes in base (Table 2, entries 11 and 12). Conclusion In conclusion, the ability of fluorine to modulate the catalytic performance of N-heterocyclic carbenes in the Steglich rearrangement of oxazolyl carbonates has been

Advancements in the mechanistic understanding of the copper-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition

• Regina Berg and
• Bernd F. Straub

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 2715–2750, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.308

• N-heterocyclic carbenes, azolium cations cannot compete for free coordination sites at the copper(I) centres so that the formation of copper acetylide complexes is greatly facilitated. This “built-in” base, the irreversible deprotonation of the alkyne under the reaction conditions of this protocol

Synthesis, characterization and luminescence studies of gold(I)–NHC amide complexes

• Adrián Gómez-Suárez,
• David J. Nelson,
• David G. Thompson,
• David B. Cordes,
• Duncan Graham,
• Alexandra M. Z. Slawin and
• Steven P. Nolan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 2216–2223, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.260

• catalysis; N-heterocyclic carbenes; synthesis; Introduction The synthesis of organogold complexes has recently attracted wide attention due to their considerable range of applications, in areas such as materials and medicinal chemistry, as well as their potential role as reaction intermediates or new

Organocatalyzed enantioselective desymmetrization of aziridines and epoxides

• Ping-An Wang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 1677–1695, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.192

• -oxide, and N-heterocyclic carbenes were published. However, the enantioselective ring-opening of meso-aziridines in the presence of chiral organocatalysts (OC) has emerged as a research field only in recent years. The organocatalysts utilized in these processes are diverse in their structural features

Synthesis and structure of trans-bis(1,4-dimesityl-3-methyl-1,2,3-triazol-5-ylidene)palladium(II) dichloride and diacetate. Suzuki–Miyaura coupling of polybromoarenes with high catalytic turnover efficiencies

• Jeelani Basha Shaik,
• Venkatachalam Ramkumar,
• Babu Varghese and
• Sethuraman Sankararaman

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 698–704, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.79

• -triazolylidene; Introduction Over the past decade N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) have attracted the attention of synthetic and organometallic chemists tremendously [1][2][3][4][5]. NHCs have been proven to be useful as organocatalysts in organic synthesis [6][7][8][9]. They are excellent ligands for transition

1-n-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium-2-carboxylate: a versatile precatalyst for the ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone and rac-lactide under solvent-free conditions

• Astrid Hoppe,
• Faten Sadaka,
• Claire-Hélène Brachais,
• Gilles Boni,
• Jean-Pierre Couvercelle and
• Laurent Plasseraud

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 647–654, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.73

• applications, great efforts have been made recently to develop metal-free organo-catalysts [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. In this context, ROP promoted by N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) is an alternative route. Indeed, previous studies have shown that NHCs provide versatile catalyst activities with high

• be improved. Further work in this direction is underway. Molecular representations of N-heterocyclic carbenes and BMIM-2-CO2. Ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone and rac-lactide by using BMIM-2-CO2 as precatalyst (1 mol %), and in the presence of alcohol initiators ROH (1, 2, 3, 4). Method

NHC-catalysed highly selective aerobic oxidation of nonactivated aldehydes

• Lennart Möhlmann,
• Stefan Ludwig and
• Siegfried Blechert

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 602–607, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.65

• of aldehydes to the corresponding acids or esters. The reaction proceeds under metal-free conditions by using N-heterocyclic carbenes as organocatalysts in combination with environmentally friendly oxygen as the terminal oxidation agent. Keywords: aerobic oxidation; chemoselective oxidation; metal

N-Heterocyclic carbene–palladium catalysts for the direct arylation of pyrrole derivatives with aryl chlorides

• Ismail Özdemir,
• Nevin Gürbüz,
• Nazan Kaloğlu,
• Öznur Doğan,
• Murat Kaloğlu,
• Christian Bruneau and
• Henri Doucet

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 303–312, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.35

• with heteroarenes. Keywords: aryl chlorides; atom-economy; C–H bond activation; C–H functionalization; carbenes; palladium; pyrroles; Introduction N-Heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) have emerged as an important class of ligands in the development of homogeneous catalysis [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Such

One-pot tandem cyclization of enantiopure asymmetric cis-2,5-disubstituted pyrrolidines: Facile access to chiral 10-heteroazatriquinanes

• Ping-An Wang,
• Sheng-Yong Zhang and
• Henri B. Kagan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 265–269, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.32

• process, both N-debenzylation and a ring-opening reaction occurred. Diamino-alcohols 6a and 6b are enantiomers, and they can serve as precursors for the synthesis of hydroxy N-heterocyclic carbenes. Following the reported procedure for the preparation of N-heterocyclic carbenes [19][20], the enantiopure

Alkyne hydroarylation with Au N-heterocyclic carbene catalysts

• Cristina Tubaro,
• Marco Baron,
• Andrea Biffis and
• Marino Basato

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 246–253, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.29

• ; gold; hydroarylation; N-heterocyclic carbenes; Introduction The hydroarylation of alkynes (Scheme 1) is arguably one of the most intensively studied reactions leading to aromatic C–H bond functionalization [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. In this reaction, the C–H bond of an arene adds formally trans to the

• towards the hydroarylation product, more activating, hence electron-donating substituents should be installed on the aryl ring. Experiments towards this goal are currently underway. Conclusion In conclusion, we have demonstrated that gold complexes with N-heterocyclic carbenes are active catalysts for

N-Heterocyclic carbene–palladium(II)-1-methylimidazole complex catalyzed Mizoroki–Heck reaction of aryl chlorides with styrenes

• Ting-Ting Gao,
• Ai-Ping Jin and
• Li-Xiong Shao

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2012, 8, 1916–1919, doi:10.3762/bjoc.8.222

• associated with the phosphine ligands, the development of alternative stable, inexpensive and easily available phosphine-free ligands is still in great demand. In the meantime, N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs), possessing the advantages of being stronger σ-donors and weaker π-acceptors than traditional

Extending the utility of [Pd(NHC)(cinnamyl)Cl] precatalysts: Direct arylation of heterocycles

• Anthony R. Martin,
• Anthony Chartoire,
• Alexandra M. Z. Slawin and
• Steven P. Nolan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2012, 8, 1637–1643, doi:10.3762/bjoc.8.187

• . Keywords: C–H functionalization; direct arylation; heterocycles; N-heterocyclic carbenes; palladium; Introduction As a powerful addition to the classic palladium cross-coupling reactions, C–H bond functionalization has become a growing field of research over the last few years. The ubiquity of C–H bonds

Cyclization of ortho-hydroxycinnamates to coumarins under mild conditions: A nucleophilic organocatalysis approach

• Florian Boeck,
• Max Blazejak,
• Markus R. Anneser and
• Lukas Hintermann

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2012, 8, 1630–1636, doi:10.3762/bjoc.8.186

• established catalysts in Morita–Baylis–Hillman type reactions, where they add to conjugated acceptor systems [39]. Tests with either nitrogen bases (Table 1, entries 2–5) or N-heterocyclic carbenes (Table 1, entry 6) were not rewarded with success. Finally, phosphanes were tested, and while triphenylphosphane

N-Heterocyclic carbene-catalyzed direct cross-aza-benzoin reaction: Efficient synthesis of α-amino-β-keto esters

• Takuya Uno,
• Yusuke Kobayashi and
• Yoshiji Takemoto

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2012, 8, 1499–1504, doi:10.3762/bjoc.8.169

• -amino-β-keto esters; cross-aza-benzoin; α-imino ester; N-heterocyclic carbenes; organocatalysis; umpolung reactions; Introduction α-Amino-β-keto ester derivatives are one of the fundamental structural subunits in natural products such as miuraenamides [1], and important building blocks for the

A quantitative approach to nucleophilic organocatalysis

• Herbert Mayr,
• Sami Lakhdar,
• Biplab Maji and
• Armin R. Ofial

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2012, 8, 1458–1478, doi:10.3762/bjoc.8.166

• settled by studying the reactivities of independently synthesized intermediates. Kinetic investigations of the reactions of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) with benzhydrylium ions showed that they have similar nucleophilicities to common organocatalysts (e.g., PPh3, DMAP, DABCO) but are much stronger (100

• activated reactions. Rate and equilibrium studies of the reactions of N-heterocyclic carbenes and the corresponding deoxy Breslow intermediates showed that N-heterocyclic carbenes have similar nucleophilicities as other frequently employed organocatalysts, but are much stronger Lewis bases. The 103 times

Synthesis of axially chiral oxazoline–carbene ligands with an N-naphthyl framework and a study of their coordination with AuCl·SMe₂

• Feijun Wang,
• Shengke Li,
• Mingliang Qu,
• Mei-Xin Zhao,
• Lian-Jun Liu and
• Min Shi

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2012, 8, 726–731, doi:10.3762/bjoc.8.81

• , affording the corresponding Au(I) complexes in moderate to high yields. Keywords: axially chiral ligand; gold; N-heterocyclic carbenes; N-naphthyl framework; Introduction During the past decade, with an explosive growth of asymmetric homogeneous gold catalysis in C–C, C–O, or C–N bond formations, the

• design and synthesis of chiral gold complexes has received wide attention. Compared with the more commonly used air-sensitive phosphine ligand, N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs), with intrinsic characteristics such as strong δ-donor but poor π-acceptor abilities, ease of preparation, air and thermal