No abstract

The first example of a transition-metal-catalyzed, meta-selective C–H bromination procedure is reported. In the presence of catalytic [{Ru(p-cymene)Cl2}2], tetrabutylammonium tribromide can be used to functionalize the meta C–H bond of 2-phenylpyridine derivatives, thus affording difficult to access products which are highly predisposed to further derivatization. We demonstrate this utility with one-pot bromination/arylation and bromination/alkenylation procedures to deliver meta-arylated and meta-alkenylated products, respectively, in a single step.

Functionalization at the α-position of carbonyl compounds has classically relied on enolate chemistry. As a result, the generation of a new C–X bond, where X is more electronegative than carbon requires an oxidation event. Herein we show that, by rendering the α-position of amides electrophilic through a mild and chemoselective umpolung transformation, a broad range of widely available oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and halogen nucleophiles can be used to generate α-functionalized amides. More than 60 examples are presented to establish the generality of this process, and calculations of the mechanistic aspects underline a fragmentation pathway that accounts for the broadness of this methodology.

Both aryl components of diaryliodonium salts can be used in a domino one-pot reaction via in situ generation of a directing group. A number of heterocycles undergo N-arylation which is followed by ruthenium-catalyzed C-arylation. Notably the reaction extends well to unsymmetrical diaryliodonium salts with a number of highly selective examples shown.

A new approach for the synthesis of 1,4-dicarbonyl compounds is reported. Chemoselective activation of amide carbonyl functionality and subsequent umpolung viaN-oxide addition generates an electrophilic enolonium species that can be coupled with a wide range of nucleophilic enolates. The method conveys broad functional group tolerance on both components, does not suffer from formation of homocoupling byproducts and avoids the use of transition metal catalysts.