A detailed study of amidine synthesis from N-allyl-N-sulfonyl ynamides is described here. Mechanistically, this is a fascinating reaction consisting of diverging pathways that could lead to deallylation or allyl transfer depending upon the oxidation state of palladium catalysts, the nucleophilicity of amines, and the nature of the ligands. It essentially constitutes a Pd(0)-catalyzed aza-Claisen rearrangement of N-allyl ynamides, which can also be accomplished thermally. An observation of N-to-C 1,3-sulfonyl shift was made when examining these aza-Claisen rearrangements thermally. This represents a useful approach to nitrile synthesis. While attempts to render this 1,3-sulfonyl shift stereoselective failed, we uncovered another set of tandem sigmatropic rearrangements, leading to vinyl imidate formation. Collectively, this work showcases the rich array of chemistry one can discover using these ynamides.

O x i d a t i o n o f P r i m a r y A m i n e s t o N i t r i l e s w i t h T r i c h l o r o i s o c y a n u r i c A c i d Fen-Abstract: An efficient and highly selective method for the oxidative conversion of primary amines to the corresponding nitriles using trichloroisocyanuric acid in the presence of catalytic TEMPO under mild reaction conditions is described. Other functional groups such as C,C-double bonds, benzyloxy etc. were found to be unaffected under the reaction conditions. This procedure provides a new entry to the synthesis of various aliphatic, aromatic and heterocyclic nitriles in excellent yield.

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An enantioselective and diastereoselective aza-[3 + 3] annulation of pyrrolidine-based exo-cyclic vinylogous amides and urethanes with chiral vinyl iminium salts is described. This asymmetric annulation manifold is possible because of an unexpected regiochemical reversal whereby head-to-tail annulations dominated over the predicted head-to-head. It should find prevalent synthetic applications in the enantioselective synthesis of indolizidines.

A practical, highly stereoselective ten‐step synthesis of coenzyme Q10 (1) has been accomplished (overall yield ca. 28%), starting from commercially available 2,3‐dimethoxy‐5‐methylbenzoquinone (Scheme). The introduction of the first side‐chain isoprenyl group with (E)‐configuration (compound 6) was realized by means of a coupling reaction of the aromatic system 3 with oxirane, followed by Swern oxidation and Wittig olefination. The tosyl (Ts) group in the sulfone 9 was selectively removed with sodium naphthalenide in THF to afford 1.