Exploring the role of halogen bonding in iodonium ylides: insights into unexpected reactivity and reaction control

• Carlee A. Montgomery and
• Graham K. Murphy

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 1171–1190, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.86

• 63a induced an energetically-disfavoured twist in the fluorine adduct’s conformation (INTA’), raising its energy over that of 63b and decreasing the energy barrier between it and the reductive elimination transition state TSA’. Additionally, the role of the halogen bond acceptor in 61d is also poorly

• - and hydrogen intermolecular bonds. This adduct decomposed by reductive elimination of the iodoarene via a three-membered transition state (TS), coupling the syn thioamide and β-dicarbonyl ligands to give thiocarbenium ion 74. The authors determined similar activation energies (≈20 kcal/mol) when

• derived iodonium ylides 63a and 63b. Proposed equilibration of intermediates to transit between 64a (the initial adduct formed between 61d and fluoride) and 64c, to properly situate fluorine for reductive elimination. X-ray crystal structure of dimeric 39 [6], (CCDC# 893474) [143][144]. Transition state

Aromatic C–H bond functionalization through organocatalyzed asymmetric intermolecular aza-Friedel–Crafts reaction: a recent update

• Anup Biswas

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 956–981, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.72

• the reaction partners in a highly ordered three dimensional transition state through noncovalent interactions (like H-bonding, π–π interactions) thus promoting the stereoselective reaction. Examples of covalent bonding organocatalysts are amines [6][7], N-heterocyclic carbenes [8][9], phosphines [10

• performs as an H-bond donor towards the imidazoline nitrogen and the electrophile acts as H-bond acceptor from the OH group of the catalyst. These interactions rearrange the three molecules in a chiral pocket as shown by transition state 7, favoring stereoinduction in the products through C3

• enantioselective aza-Friedel–Crafts addition. In the first step, the DDQ-promoted oxidation of 3-indolinonecarboxylate 22 generated indolenines that performed as the potential electrophiles towards indoles 4. The chiral catalyst effectively assembled the reacting partners in a chiral transition state through H

Eschenmoser coupling reactions starting from primary thioamides. When do they work and when not?

• Lukáš Marek,
• Jiří Váňa,
• Jan Svoboda and
• Jiří Hanusek

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 808–819, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.61

• functional with D3 Grimme’s dispersion correction [42][43] and 6-311++G(d,p) basis set. All reported minima and transition state structures were confirmed by calculation and diagonalization of their Hessian matrices. The reported energies are Gibbs free energies calculated with the SMD method in N,N

Enolates ambushed – asymmetric tandem conjugate addition and subsequent enolate trapping with conventional and less traditional electrophiles

• Péter Kisszékelyi and
• Radovan Šebesta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 593–634, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.44

• diastereocontrol originates from the preferred E/Z enolate geometry during the transition state. Interestingly, using t-BuOH instead of iPrOH resulted in exceptionally better results for some substrates with different ring sizes. In 2015, the group of Feringa investigated the copper-catalyzed conjugate borylation

• desymmetrization step during which the chiral enolate attacks (Si-face) the prochiral cyclohexadienone ring via a chair-like transition state. The reaction requires an excess amount of base, resulting in the formation of a more favorable lithium enolate. Subsequent oxidation of the boronates gave the corresponding

• >20:1). Due to the high diastereoselectivity, the authors have concluded that the boron enolates are stable and do not isomerize by reversible formation of C–boryl species. The stereochemical information of the enolate is most likely transferred to the final product via a chair-like transition state

A new oxidatively stable ligand for the chiral functionalization of amino acids in Ni(II)–Schiff base complexes

• Alena V. Dmitrieva,
• Oleg A. Levitskiy,
• Yuri K. Grishin and
• Tatiana V. Magdesieva

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 566–574, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.41

• to the transition-state energy. However, the problem is that the transition state is rather specific and dependent on the particular reaction type. Thus, it hardly can be generalized. In contrast, the thermodynamically controlled stereoselectivity refers to the difference in the thermodynamic

Access to cyclopropanes with geminal trifluoromethyl and difluoromethylphosphonate groups

• Ita Hajdin,
• Romana Pajkert,
• Mira Keßler,
• Jianlin Han,
• Haibo Mei and
• Gerd-Volker Röschenthaler

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 541–549, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.39

• adds to the diazo compound 5 under formation of zwitterionic Int1 (ΔG = 5.2 kcal/mol). Afterwards, copper carbene complex Int2 is formed after extrusion of nitrogen. The transition state of this metal carbene formation TS1 was calculated with an activation free energy of 16.4 kcal/mol (Scheme 5). Int2

• adds to styrene to the carbon atom in 2-position of the ethenyl group. At this point, four different orientations of the phenyl group are conceivable (Scheme 6 and Scheme 7, TS2_1 to TS2_4). After an early transition state with hardly any activation barrier, the addition of styrene to Int2 proceeds in

• then involved in the next catalytic cycle and thus removed from the equilibrium between Int4 and Pr + CuI. In addition, since TS2 is an early transition state and the potential is concomitantly very flat, only TS2_2 was found by means of regular optimization towards a first order saddle point. For the

Transition-metal-catalyzed domino reactions of strained bicyclic alkenes

• Austin Pounder,
• Eric Neufeld,
• Peter Myler and
• William Tam

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 487–540, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.38

• than the possible syn-1,4-substituted product. It was found the reductive elimination transition state leading to the 1,4-disubstituted product TS33-P1 would require an increase in distortion energy compared to TS35-P2 which contributes to an overall greater kinetic barrier. The following year, Lautens

• (Scheme 19) [62]. Similar reactivity trends were observed in both accounts. Mechanistically, the transformation was proposed to begin with the coordination of Cp*RuI to the exo face of the bicyclic alkene. Oxidative addition into the C–O bond, which is proposed to be the enantiodetermining transition

• state, followed by coordination to the alkyne generates intermediate 109. Migratory insertion of the alkyne results in the ruthenacycle 110. Subsequent reductive elimination generates putative allyl vinyl ether 111 and regenerates the active ruthenium complex. The allyl vinyl ether intermediate

Computational studies of Brønsted acid-catalyzed transannular cycloadditions of cycloalkenone hydrazones

• Manuel Pedrón,
• Jana Sendra,
• Irene Ginés,
• Tomás Tejero,
• Jose L. Vicario and
• Pedro Merino

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 477–486, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.37

• (3+ + 2) reaction in which distortion effects are crucial for achieving the required ion-pair geometry in the transition state. Following this precedent, we proceeded to calculate the energy barriers and the corresponding activation parameters for all the reactions illustrated in Scheme 1 (series a–k

• the reagent the higher is the barrier (for similar transition-state energies) justifying the observed reactivity. Only the two systems (a and b) with lower values of the integration parameter have barriers compatible with observed reactions upon heating, the rest presenting too high barriers to allow

• dotted traces refer to lone pairs (monosynaptic basins) and colored plain traces to bonds (disynaptic basins). The vertical red line indicates the transition state (see Supporting Information File 1 for the full data). Quantitative NCI analysis [36] for the reaction of series a–f leading to fused

Asymmetric synthesis of a stereopentade fragment toward latrunculins

• Benjamin Joyeux,
• Antoine Gamet,
• Nicolas Casaretto and
• Bastien Nay

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 428–433, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.32

• -induction of the aldol stereocenter by β-alkoxy ketone 9, leading to an (S)-configuration [18][19][20]. This control is supposed to follow a boat transition state A stabilized by a formyl hydrogen bond [30]. It is known to be dependent on the nature of the β-alkoxy substituent, being particularly favoured

• by the PMB and other aromatic groups, while being disfavoured by silyl protecting groups. Alternatively, an (R)-configuration of C-15 could result from a polar Felkin–Anh model controlled by aldehyde 8 through chair-transition state B [14][15][16]. To determine the configuration of C-15, we initially

Group 13 exchange and transborylation in catalysis

• Dominic R. Willcox and
• Stephen P. Thomas

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 325–348, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.28

• kinetic and computational analyses, the B‒C(sp2)/B‒H transborylation transition state was determined to have a free energy barrier of approximately 20 kcal mol−1 (ΔG‡calc = 19.7 kcal mol−1; ΔG‡exp = 20.3 kcal mol−1) (Scheme 2). The borane-catalysed hydroboration of alkenes has been less explored, with

Identification and determination of the absolute configuration of amorph-4-en-10β-ol, a cadinol-type sesquiterpene from the scent glands of the African reed frog Hyperolius cinnamomeoventris

• Angelique Ladwig,
• Markus Kroll and
• Stefan Schulz

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2023, 19, 167–175, doi:10.3762/bjoc.19.16

• conformation of the transition state. A chair transition state is less preferred because of inherent non-bonding interactions of some hydrogens. This has been discussed in detail in the original publication by Taber and Gunn, favoring 9 as the main diastereomer [13]. Our results confirm these data. To increase

Redox-active molecules as organocatalysts for selective oxidative transformations – an unperceived organocatalysis field

• Elena R. Lopat’eva,
• Igor B. Krylov,
• Dmitry A. Lapshin and
• Alexander O. Terent’ev

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1672–1695, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.179

• in oxidative processes for the activation of electrophilic properties of unsaturated substrates or for the activation of hydroperoxide oxidative properties. In Scheme 4A the proposed transition state for the Brønsted acid-catalyzed asymmetric Baeyer–Villiger reaction is shown, in which the

• electrophile and the nucleophile with the specific preorganization of the substrates by the catalyst is crucial for high enantioselectivity [67] (as in example A in Scheme 4). However, in example B the transition state without specific interactions between the sulfide and the catalyst is proposed. In this case

Synthesis of (−)-halichonic acid and (−)-halichonic acid B

• Keith P. Reber and
• Emma L. Niner

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1629–1635, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.174

• acyclic conformational analysis. Three divergent mechanistic pathways can be formulated by considering the different conformers of protonated imine 7, namely iminium ions 12a–c (Scheme 3). In each case, the chair-like transition state of the intramolecular aza-Prins reaction is controlled by the C7

• ultimately lead to the C2-epimer of 8), the resulting transition state is presumably much higher in energy. In practice, the intramolecular aza-Prins reaction of 12a forms a new carbon–carbon bond to generate a rigid 3-azabicyclo[3.3.1]nonane ring system (13). Although several different fates could be

• , the cyclohexenyl ring system occupies a pseudo-axial position, the methyl group occupies a pseudo-equatorial position, and the trisubstituted alkene of the prenyl group serves as the nucleophile. The chair-like transition state of the intramolecular aza-Prins reaction allows both the ethyl ester and

Design, synthesis, and evaluation of chiral thiophosphorus acids as organocatalysts

• Karen R. Winters and
• Jean-Luc Montchamp

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1471–1478, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.154

• = Et (2.4 equiv), toluene, 60 °C). Further optimization with the pivalate led to 20 in 82% yield and 68% ee (19 R2 = t-Bu (2 equiv), cyclopentyl methyl ether, 22 °C). To account for the best results observed with pivalate 18, Guinchard and coworkers proposed the transition-state shown in Scheme 5 [31

• thiophosphorus acid 2. Synthesis of N-biphenyl-DOPO CPA 4. Transfer hydrogenation of 2-phenylquinoline and transition-state proposed by Guinchard and coworkers [28]. P-stereogenic CPAs in the transfer hydrogenation of quinolines. Supporting Information Supporting Information File 332: Experimental procedures

Supramolecular approaches to mediate chemical reactivity

• Pablo Ballester,
• Qi-Qiang Wang and
• Carmine Gaeta

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1463–1465, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.152

• substrate(s) and potentially the transition state is essential in supramolecular catalysis. Supramolecular catalysis finds inspiration in natural enzymes, which show catalytic features such as substrates and products selectivity, efficiency, geometric control, and acceleration of chemical reactivity [1]. If

Ferrocenoyl-adenines: substituent effects on regioselective acylation

• Mateja Toma,
• Gabrijel Zubčić,
• Jasmina Lapić,
• Senka Djaković,
• Davor Šakić and
• Valerije Vrček

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1270–1277, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.133

• the N7 atom. As a consequence, the formation of N7-isomer is a kinetically less feasible process, i.e., the corresponding transition state structure increases in relative energy (compared to the formation of the N9-isomer). In cases where the steric hindrance is negligible, the electronic effect of

• with Sterimol parameters. We assume that the steric effect of the C6-substituent is the most evident in the transition state structure leading to the formation of the N7-ferrocenoylated product. The bulky substituents at the C6 atom may shield the proximal N7 region of space, which prevents the

• approach of an electrophile (e.g., FcCOCl) towards the N7 atom. In the course of N9-isomer formation no similar steric hindrance is encountered. This is supported by our quantum-chemical calculations which compared the two transition state structures for the ferrocenoylation of the N6,N6-di-tert

Vicinal ketoesters – key intermediates in the total synthesis of natural products

• Marc Paul Beller and
• Ulrich Koert

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1236–1248, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.129

• intramolecular aldol addition of ketones such as 7 (Scheme 2) [5]. Brønsted-acid catalysis leads via a transition state 8 to the aldol 9, while the use of chelating Lewis acids results via 10 in the epimeric aldol 11. This review is a collection of total syntheses of natural products where vicinal keto esters

• ]. DMP oxidation of α-hydroxyester 21 and subsequent cycloisomerization led to the desired cyclization product 23 via transition state II in a dr of 5:1. Final deprotection gave preussochromone A (24). (−)-Preussochromone D A similar approach was chosen in the synthesis of the structurally related

• 27. Subsequent oxidation gave α-ketoester 28 which was used in an intramolecular, Lewis acid-mediated aldol reaction, presumably via tridentate complex transition state III, to give diol 29 as a single diastereomer. Inversion of the secondary alcohol and deprotection gave preussochromone D (30

Experimental and theoretical studies on the synthesis of 1,4,5-trisubstituted pyrrolidine-2,3-diones

• Nguyen Tran Nguyen,
• Vo Viet Dai,
• Nguyen Ngoc Tri,
• Luc Van Meervelt,
• Nguyen Tien Trung and
• Wim Dehaen

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1140–1153, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.118

• interacts with CH3NH2 to form a stable complex (IS1), which is then transfered to the IS5 intermediate via the TS8 transition state with a high potential barrier of 49.5 kcal·mol−1. From the IS5 intermediate, there are two possible ways to yield product 10ab by removing one H2O molecule from either two O–H

• groups or O–H and N–H groups. Before a H2O molecule is released from two O–H groups, IS5 firstly converts to its isomer IS8 through the TS12 transition state with a relatively small potential barrier (ca. 2.6 kcal·mol−1). IS8 then removes H2O from two close O–H bonds to form the product 10ab via TS18

• bond to N atom (Scheme 4). This process is thermodynamically favorable by a Gibbs free energy (ΔG) of −6.5 kcal·mol−1. In addition, a second way from 4a, through the TS5 transition state, to form the IS3 intermediate requires an activation energy of ca. 33.7 kcal·mol−1. IS3 could release one H2O

Understanding the competing pathways leading to hydropyrene and isoelisabethatriene

• Shani Zev,
• Marion Ringel,
• Ronja Driller,
• Bernhard Loll,
• Thomas Brück and
• Dan T. Major

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 972–978, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.97

• pressure of 1 bar and temperature of 298 K. We note that for some reaction steps, a transition state could not be located. Summary of yields of HP and IE products in hydropyrene synthase. Free energy profile of hydropyrene cation (a), and IE cation (b) formation in the gas phase. The free energy of cation

Copper-catalyzed multicomponent reactions for the efficient synthesis of diverse spirotetrahydrocarbazoles

• Shao-Cong Zhan,
• Ren-Jie Fang,
• Jing Sun and
• Chao-Guo Yan

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 796–808, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.80

• cycloaddition between the indole-based ortho-quinodimethanes (o-QDMs, A) and dienophiles affords the final spiro compounds 1, 2, 4 and 5 as major isomers through an endo-transition state. Due to the different polarity, 3-phenacylideneoxindole and isatylidene malononitrile resulted in regioisomeric spiro

Synthesis of bis-spirocyclic derivatives of 3-azabicyclo[3.1.0]hexane via cyclopropene cycloadditions to the stable azomethine ylide derived from Ruhemann's purple

• Alexander S. Filatov,
• Olesya V. Khoroshilova,
• Anna G. Larina,
• Vitali M. Boitsov and
• Alexander V. Stepakov

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 769–780, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.77

• using density functional theory (DFT) methods at the M11/cc-pVDZ level of theory. The cycloaddition reactions have been found to be HOMOcyclopropene–LUMOylide controlled while the transition-state energies for the reaction of 3-methyl-3-phenylcyclopropene with PRP are fully consistent with the

• transition state structures ΤS-4-endo, TS-4-exo, TS-4'-endo, and TS-4'-exo that were associated with a concerted mechanism of the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition. Two of them, namely TS-4-endo and TS-4-exo correspond to the two nitrogen invertomers 4-endo and 4-exo of cycloadduct 4 while the other two TS-4'-endo

• -exo = 2.1 kcal/mol, ΔG‡4'-exo->4'-endo = 0.2 kcal/mol, and ΔG‡4'-endo->4'-exo = 3.8 kcal/mol). Since rapid interconversion takes place, it does not matter via which transition state (ΤS-4-endo or ΤS-4-exo) cycloadduct 4 is formed. The same pattern is consistent with cycloadduct 4'. It should be

A trustworthy mechanochemical route to isocyanides

• Francesco Basoccu,
• Federico Cuccu,
• Federico Casti,
• Rita Mocci,
• Claudia Fattuoni and
• Andrea Porcheddu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 732–737, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.73

• attributed to their probable reaction mechanism where the nitrogen atom not only promotes the enolate derivative formation as already described in literature [33][34] but it may also generate a positively charged intermediate at the transition state [35], enhancing the nucleophilic substitution. Obviously

Heteroleptic metallosupramolecular aggregates/complexation for supramolecular catalysis

• Prodip Howlader and
• Michael Schmittel

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 597–630, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.62

• complex [FeCu2(104)2]4+ (Figure 23), the latter controlling a double-click catalytic access to rotaxanes 109, by addition/removal of iron(II) ions [110]. Although [FeCu2(104)2]4+ is an open and flexible structure, the availability of two catalytic copper(I) centers positioned at 34 Å in the transition

• state of the second click reaction, leads to an astounding synthetic efficiency, although there is a major distance mismatch between the copper(I) ions in [FeCu2(104)2]4+ and two triazole units of the rotaxane. For instance, the system [FeCu2(104)2]4+ (dCu–Cu = 34 Å) afforded the formation of both 109a

Site-selective reactions mediated by molecular containers

• Rui Wang and
• Yang Yu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 309–324, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.35

• efforts to increase site-selectivity, with the best result of site-specificity [2][3][4]. However, it is rather difficult to do so, differentiating one certain reactive site from the similar others, because the difference between their transition-state free energies, that would modulate isomeric product

• the coiling conformation, giving rise to a compressed 5-membered-ring transition state. Later, the authors offered a detailed discussion regarding the mechanism of this reaction [73]. This example of using a synthetic receptor to achieve site-selective reaction fully showed how a molecular container

Iridium-catalyzed hydroacylation reactions of C1-substituted oxabenzonorbornadienes with salicylaldehyde: an experimental and computational study

• Angel Ho,
• Austin Pounder,
• Krish Valluru,
• Leanne D. Chen and
• William Tam

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 251–261, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.30

• local minima have only real frequencies, while transition-state structures were characterized by exactly one imaginary frequency. Solvent effects (solvent = 1,4-dioxane) were taken into account using the polarized continuum model (PCM) of Tomasi and co-workers [72] and were involved in all geometry

• reductive elimination transition states, 2bTS3b is the more energetically accessible transition state with an energy barrier of 5.9 kcal/mol, that is 4.9 kcal/mol lower in energy compared to 2aTS3a. This large difference in activation energy (ΔΔG‡) between the two competing transition states offers