A mild and highly stereoselective rhodium(II)-catalyzed cyclopropanation of alkenes, alkynes, and allenes with diacceptor diazo compounds is reported. Using the phosphonate moiety as an efficient trans-directing group, the first catalytic asymmetric route to diacceptor cycloprop(en)ylphosphonates was developed by employing an α-cyano diazophosphonate and Rh(2)(S-IBAZ)(4) as chiral catalyst. The isosteric character of phosphonic and carboxylic acid derivatives allowed the alternative use of an α-cyano diazo ester in the process, leading to α-cyano cycloprop(en)ylcarboxylates in high yields and stereoselectivities. Taking advantage of the particular reactivity of the cyanocarbene intermediates involved in this system, the scope of compatible substrates could be extended to substituted allenes, leading to the development of the first catalytic enantioselective method for the synthesis of diacceptor alkylidenecyclopropanes.

We present the application of ionic liquid-aqueous micellar solutions as reaction media for Diels-Alder reaction and found that reaction rates could be significantly increased compared to the reaction in water.

Investigations of excited-state redox processes have an exceptional impact on the field of organic photochemistry and its application to the synthesis of complex target molecules. In such a photochemical process a single-electron transfer takes place to produce ion-radical intermediates, if the reduction and oxidation potentials, as well as excited-state energies of electron donors and acceptors are chosen appropriately. The Witkop cyclization constitutes an intramolecular variant of such a process, typically with an indole heterocycle as an electron donor. The specific synthetic value of this reaction lies in a CC bond formation without requiring any prefunctionalization of the indole system. Although this photoreaction has been applied to the total synthesis of natural products, it has still not been used to its full capacity. The following review details synthetic efforts using the Witkop cyclization, and aims to incite further applications of reaction in the synthesis of complex molecular architectures.

An enantioselective gram-scale synthesis of one of the most potent SIRT1-inhibitors has been accomplished by an unprecedented domino reaction sequence establishing the cyclohepta[b]indole core. This method was developed for application in natural product synthesis of a variety of indole alkaloids.