We developed an approach for direct selective hydroxylation of heterobenzylic methylenes to secondary alcohols avoiding overoxidation to ketones by using a KOBu-t/DMSO/air system. Most reactions could reach completion in several minutes to give hydroxylated products in 41–76% yields. Using DMSO-d 6, this protocol resulted in difunctionalization of heterobenzylic methylenes to afford α-deuterated secondary alcohols (>93% incorporation). By employing this method, active pharmaceutical ingredients carbinoxamine and doxylamine were synthesized in two steps in moderate yields.

A catalytic asymmetric method for the synthesis of chiral isoquinolinonaphthyridines has been developed. A chiral disulfonimide catalyzes a redox cyclization reaction between 2-methyl-3-aldehydeazaarenes and 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinolines to deliver a range of isoquinolinonaphthyridines with good to high yields (up to 91%) and up to 92 : 8 er.

An efficient Lewis acid‐catalyzed C(sp3)–C(sp3) bond forming annulation reaction has been developed. This strategy serves as a new method for the facile synthesis of tetrahydro‐5H‐isoquinolino[2,1‐g][1,6]naphthyridine derivatives. A wide range of 2‐methylquinoline‐3‐carbaldehydes and 1,2,3,4‐tetrahydroisoquinolines can be applied for this process to afford structurally diverse tetrahydroprotoberberine derivatives in excellent yields.magnified image

A Co(OAc)-catalyzed trifluoromethylation and subsequent C(3)-selective arylation of 2-(propargylamino)pyridines has been developed. A new 6-endo-dig cyclization involving an unprecedented C(3) selective arylation of the pyridines instead of a commonly observed 5-exo-dig cyclization with "N" is realized. Moreover, the study presents the first case of the installation of a trifluoromethyl group into electron-deficient azaarenes. The process delivers an efficient cascade approach to new trifluoromethylated 1,8-naphthyridine structures with a broad substrate scope.

A concise, environmentally benign, and cost-effective route was developed for the large-scale preparation of 1, a novel oxazolidinone antibacterial candidate. The key intermediate 2-(1-(2-fluoro-4-nitrophenyl)-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)­pyridine 7 was prepared with high purity by mild deamination of the regioisomeric mixture 21. The mixture was prepared from a nucleophilic SNAr reaction by selective C–N coupling of the secondary amine functionality of 4-(pyridin-2-yl)-1H-pyrazol-3-amine 14 with 1,2-difluoro-4-nitrobenzene 10 in optimized conditions with the primary amine group remaining intact. The gaseous nitrogen release rate and reaction mixture temperature of the deamination step can be well controlled by altering the feeding manner, thereby providing safety guarantees. The optimized synthetic strategy of 1 with an overall yield of 27.6%, including seven sequential transformations by only five solid–liquid isolations, significantly improved the product separation workup. The strategy bypassed time-consuming and laborious procedures for any intermediate involved as well as for the final API. This study presents a process enabling the rapid delivery of a multikilogram quantity of API with high purity.