The poorer, the better: A metal-free catalytic procedure for the reduction of electron-poor allenes and alkenes has been developed. The method employs a frustrated Lewis pair based catalyst. 1,4-Diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO)/B(C₆F₅)₃ was shown to be the best combination in optimization studies

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The synthesis of several electron poor allenes bearing electron withdrawing substituents is described and their use as Lewis acids in the field of frustrated Lewis pair (FLP) chemistry reported. At room temperature the combination of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) with the allenes under study invariably afforded the corresponding Lewis adducts; however, at -78 °C this reaction is in most of the cases inhibited and kinetically induced organic FLPs are formed. Under these conditions the activation of S-S bonds in disulfides has been achieved in excellent yields.

Iodocyclopentenes are formed at room temperature upon straight reaction of delta-alkynyl-beta-ketoesters with I2 for several hours. Cyclizations involving terminal and substituted (alkyl, aryl, Br, I) alkynes were accessed. Twelve examples with yields ranging from 20% up to 80% are reported (out of them eight cases are above 60%). These results present the first examples of the iodonium-promoted 5-endo-dig carbocyclization of active methyne substrates onto alkynes.

Replacement of the tricyanofuran (TCF) acceptor by its stronger analogue CF 3-TCF results in decreased second-order optical nonlinearities in merocyanines bearing a proaromatic 1,3-dithiole donor. The TCF-containing derivatives display exceptionally high mu beta values up to 31,000 x 10(-48) esu, unprecedented for 1,3-dithiole-based NLO-phores.