Determining the predominant tautomeric structure of iodine-based group-transfer reagents by ¹⁷O NMR spectroscopy

• Nico Santschi,
• Cody Ross Pitts,
• Benson J. Jelier and
• René Verel

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 2289–2294, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.203

• for the design of electrophilic transfer reagents. A particularly intriguing aspect is the fundamental II–IIII tautomerism about the hypervalent bond, which has led in certain cases to a surprising re-evaluation of the classic hypervalent structure. Thus, through a combination of 17O NMR spectroscopy

• structural elucidation technique to predict the constitution of an electrophilic iodine-based cyano-transfer reagent as an NC–I–O motif and study the acid-mediated activation of Togni's trifluoromethylation reagent. Keywords: electrophilic; hypervalent iodine; 17O NMR spectroscopy; trifluoromethylation

• -based group-transfer reagents and provide greater mechanistic insight into reactivity of these reagents (Figure 1). Accordingly, we describe herein how 17O NMR spectroscopy in tandem with gauge-independent atomic orbital (GIAO) calculations may be a viable approach to establishing the predominant