Nature routinely engages alcohols as leaving groups, as DNA biosynthesis relies on the removal of water from ribonucleoside diphosphates by a radical-mediated “spin-center shift” (SCS) mechanism. Alcohols, however, remain underused as alkylating agents in synthetic chemistry due to their low reactivity in two-electron pathways. We report herein an enantioselective α-benzylation of aldehydes using alcohols as alkylating agents based on the mechanistic principle of spin-center shift. This strategy harnesses the dual activation modes of photoredox and organocatalysis, engaging the alcohol by SCS and capturing the resulting benzylic radical with a catalytically generated enamine. Mechanistic studies provide evidence for SCS as a key elementary step, identify the origins of competing reactions, and enable improvements in chemoselectivity by rational photocatalyst design.

Bimolecular nucleophilic substitution reactions of alcohols are fundamentally important transformations in organic chemistry yet, to date, they are relatively underdeveloped with respect to catalysis. This Article describes the emerging area of catalytic SN2 reactions with specific emphasis on the design and development of phosphorus(V) and cyclopropenone-based catalytic SN2 reactions of alcohols.

The synthesis and characterization of six new classes of higher-order superbases, including five that incorporate cyclopropenimine functionality, has been achieved. We propose a nomenclature that designates these as the CG2, GC2, PC3, PC1, C3, and GP2 classes of superbases. The pKBH+ values were measured to be between 29.0 and 35.6 in acetonitrile. Linear correlations of ten superbase basicities vs. that of their substituents demonstrated the insulating effect of the cyclopropenimine core. The molecular structures of several of these materials were obtained by single-crystal X-ray analysis, revealing interesting aspects of conformational bias and noncovalent organization. The types of superbasic cores and substituents were each shown reliably to affect selectivity for deprotonation over alkylation. Higher-order cyclopropenimine and guanidine superbase stability to hydrolysis was found to correlate to basicity. Finally, a GC2 base was found to catalyze conjugate additions of α-aryl ester pronucleophiles, representing the first report of a neutral Brønsted base to catalyze such reactions.

The cyclopropenone catalyzed nucleophilic substitution of alcohols by methanesulfonate ion with inversion of configuration is described. This work provides an alternative to the Mitsunobu reaction that avoids the use of azodicarboxylates and generation of hydrazine and phosphine oxide byproducts. This transformation is shown to be compatible with a range of functionality. A cyclopropenone scavenge strategy is demonstrated to aid purification.

The intramolecular cross-coupling of sulfonic acid derivatives occurs in the presence of tris(trimethylsilyl)silane (TTMSS) at room temperature and in air to form biaryl compounds. A photoredox-catalyzed procedure is also described. These protocols provide mild and convenient alternatives to standard tin-mediated reactions.