Autocatalytic Cycles in a Copper-Catalyzed Azide–Alkyne Cycloaddition Reaction

Decoration of Coiled-Coil Peptides with N-Cysteine Peptide Thioesters As Cyclic Peptide Precursors Using Copper-Catalyzed Azide-Alkyne Cycloaddition (CuAAC) Click Reaction

The development of a copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) protocol for the decoration of coiled coils with N-cysteine peptide thioesters as cyclic peptide precursors is presented. The reaction conditions include tert-butanol/PBS as the solvent and CuSO₄/THPTA/ascorbate as the catalytic system. During these studies, partial formylation of N-terminal cysteine peptides is observed. Mechanistic analysis leads to identification of the formyl source and, hence, to the development of reaction conditions, under which the undesired side reaction was suppressed.

Mechanism of the Visible-Light-Mediated Copper-Catalyzed Coupling Reaction of Phenols and Alkynes

A recent experimental study reported a visible-light-mediated aerobic oxidative coupling reaction of phenol with alkynes that produces hydroxyl-functionalized aryl ketones using inexpensive CuCl as catalyst under mild conditions. Here we apply the complete active space self-consistent field (CASSCF) method and multistate second-order perturbation (MS-CASPT2) theory in combination with density functional theory (DFT) to systematically explore the entire photocatalytic reaction between phenol and phenylacetylene in acetonitrile solution in the presence of molecular oxygen and CuCl. Our main findings are as follows: (1) The visible-light-driven conversion of phenylacetylene to PhCCCu(I) occurs thermally because of efficient excited-state deactivation to the S₀ state. (2) The single electron transfer from PhCCCu(I) to molecular oxygen that leads to the PhCCCu(II) cation takes place in the T₁ state after an efficient S₁ → T₁ intersystem crossing. (3) During the initial oxidation of phenol, molecular oxygen prefers to attack the para position of the phenol radical intermediate to produce 1,4-benzoquinone, which further reacts with PhCCCu(II) to generate para-hydroxyl-substituted aryl ketones; this is the origin of the experimentally observed regioselectivity. (4) The C≡C bond of the phenylacetylene moiety is not activated by the triplet-state single electron transfer from PhCCCu(I) to molecular oxygen but is cleaved at a later stage, in the [2+2] cycloaddition between PhCCCu(II) and 1,4-benzoquinone. (5) The substrate phenol plays an active role in several hydrogen transfer and decarboxylation reactions; the barriers to these phenol-assisted reactions are lower than those for the corresponding direct or water-assisted reactions, which explains the experimental finding that adding water does not enhance the photocatalytic reaction yield. In summary, while supporting the general features of the experimentally proposed mechanism, our computational study provides detailed mechanistic insights that should be useful for understanding and further improving visible-light-induced copper-catalyzed coupling reactions.