N-Heterocyclic carbene/Brønsted acid cooperative catalysis as a powerful tool in organic synthesis

• Rob De Vreese and
• Matthias D’hooghe

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2012, 8, 398–402, doi:10.3762/bjoc.8.43

• encouraged many chemists to search intensively for new NHC ligands, and this has led to the establishment of a very fruitful research area in organic chemistry [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. A particularly interesting application comprises the use of “umpolung” reactions [11] (inversion of polarity) catalyzed by N

• -heterocyclic carbenes, such as the benzoin condensation and the Stetter reaction. In these reactions, the NHC effects an “umpolung” of the normal carbonyl reactivity, and the electrophilic aldehyde carbon atom thus becomes nucleophilic and can attack a variety of electrophiles. The story of “umpolung

• ” reactions of aldehydes started as long ago as 1832, and the preparation of sterically hindered triazolium salts in 1996 provided a solid basis for highly stereoselective “umpolung” reactions utilizing NHCs [12]. In addition, conjugate “umpolung” relates to a process in which α,β-unsaturated aldehydes 3 are

Lithium phosphonate umpolung catalysts: Do fluoro substituents increase the catalytic activity?

• Anca Gliga,
• Bernd Goldfuss and
• Jörg M. Neudörfl

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2011, 7, 1189–1197, doi:10.3762/bjoc.7.138

• ; lithium phosphonates; umpolung; Introduction Since the discovery of the cyanide catalyzed benzoin reaction by Liebig and Wöhler in 1832 [1], acyloin-type reactions evolved as powerful tools for couplings of acylanion equivalents with carbon electrophiles. In addition to cyanide [2][3][4][5] and

Shelf-stable electrophilic trifluoromethylating reagents: A brief historical perspective

• Norio Shibata,
• Andrej Matsnev and
• Dominique Cahard

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2010, 6, No. 65, doi:10.3762/bjoc.6.65

• stability compared to the intermediates with Rf groups with more than one carbon atom. In 2006 Togni and co-workers reported a new family of hypervalent iodine compounds in which the CF3 group is bonded directly to the iodine atom. The overall synthetic protocol depends on a formal umpolung of the CF3 group