The hydroxyl group of enantioenriched benzyl, propargyl, allyl, and alkyl alcohols has been intramolecularly displaced by uncharged O-, N-, and S-centered nucleophiles to yield enantioenriched tetrahydrofuran, pyrrolidine, and tetrahydrothiophene derivatives with phosphinic acid catalysis. The five-membered heterocyclic products are generated in good to excellent yields, with high degree of chirality transfer, and water as the only side-product. Racemization experiments show that phosphinic acid does not promote SN1 reactivity. Density functional theory calculations corroborate a reaction pathway where the phosphinic acid operates as a bifunctional catalyst in the intramolecular substitution reaction. In this mechanism, the acidic proton of the phosphinic acid protonates the hydroxyl group, enhancing the leaving group ability. Simultaneously, the oxo group of phosphinic acid operates as a base abstracting the nucleophilic proton and thus enhancing the nucleophilicity. This reaction will open up new atom efficient techniques that enable alcohols to be used as nucleofuges in substitution reactions in the future.

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The interaction of fragments derived from lignin depolymerization with a heterogeneous palladium catalyst in methanol-water solution is studied by means of experimental and theoretical methodologies. Quantum chemistry calculations and molecular dynamics simulations based on the ReaxFF approach are combined effectively to obtain an atomic level characterization of the crucial steps of the adsorption of the molecules on the catalyst, their fragmentation, reactions, and desorption. The main products are identified, and the most important routes to obtain them are explained through extensive computational procedures. The simulation results are in excellent agreement with the experiments and suggest that the mechanisms comprise a fast chemisorption of identified fragments from lignin on the metal interface accompanied by bond breaking, release of some of their hydrogens and oxygens to the support, and eventual desorption depending on the local environment. The strongest connections are those involving the aromatic rings, as confirmed by the binding energies of selected representative structures, estimated at the quantum chemistry level. The satisfactory agreement with the literature, quantum chemistry data, and experiments confirms the reliability of the multilevel computational procedure to study complex reaction mixtures and its potential application in the design of high-performance catalytic devices.

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The direct intramolecular stereospecific substitution of the hydroxyl group in enantiomerically enriched secondary benzylic, allylic, propargylic, and alkyl alcohols was successfully accomplished by phosphinic acid catalysis. The hydroxyl group was displaced by O-, S-, and N-centered nucleophiles to provide enantioenriched five-membered tetrahydrofuran, pyrrolidine, and tetrahydrothiophene as well as six-membered tetrahydroquinolines and chromanes in up to a 99% yield and 100% enantiospecificity with water as the only byproduct. Mechanistic studies using both experiments and calculations have been performed for substrates generating 5-membered heterocycles. Rate studies show dependences in a catalyst, an internal nucleophile, and an electrophile, however, independence in an external nucleophile, an electrophile, or water. Kinetic isotope effect studies show an inverse KIE of k H/k D = 0.79. Furthermore, phosphinic acid does not promote SN1 reactivity. Computational studies support a bifunctional role of the phosphinic acid in which activation of both nucleofuge and nucleophile occurs in a bridging SN2-type transition state. In this transition state, the acidic hydrogen of phosphinic acid protonates the leaving hydroxyl group simultaneously as the oxo group partially deprotonates the nucleophile. Thereby, phosphinic acid promotes the substitution of the nonderivatized hydroxyl group in enantioenriched secondary alcohols by uncharged nucleophiles with conservation of the chirality from the alcohol to the heterocycle.