Stereochemical Outcome of Copper-Catalyzed C–H Insertion Reactions. An Experimental and Theoretical Study

How CuCl and CuCl2 Insert into C-N Bonds of Diazo Compounds: An Electronic Structure and Mechanistic Study

The transition-metal Cu catalysts CuCl and CuCl₂ have been widely employed to catalyze a series of chemical reactions with diazo compounds because of their high efficiency and selectivity. However, how to yield the active Cu carbene species from the Cu catalysts and diazo compounds still remains unclear. In this work, we performed a comprehensive theoretical investigation on the electronic structures of CuCl and CuCl₂ in solution. The results indicate that the most stable structures for CuCl and CuCl₂ are dimer and monomer, respectively. The C-N bond insertion of aryldiazoacetate by CuCl yields a stable bimetallic carbene species, which differs from the monometallic carbene generated from CuCl₂.

Theoretical Study of the Mechanism of Catalytic Enanteoselective N-H and O-H Insertion Reactions

Theoretical density functional theory (DFT) calculations were carried out to study bond insertion reactions using a copper(I)-Box-carbenoid as a bond activator. In order to understand the reaction mechanism where N-H and O-H bonds actively participate, the reaction force (RF) and activation strain model (ASM) were used. Results indicate that the first step of the reaction is barrierless for both bond insertions (N-H and O-H), and the second step of the insertion reaction in the phenol (O-H bond) is favored kinetically and thermodynamically with regard to the aniline substrate (N-H bond). The enantioselectivity is driven by the ligand of the catalyst by steric repulsion, favoring the formation of the R isomer. The analysis of the reaction force and ASM exhibited that the higher energy barrier in aniline is mainly due to a higher W₂ contribution together with repulsive interactions, which hinders the insertion process.

Absolute Configurations of Synthetic Molecular Scaffolds from Vibrational CD Spectroscopy

Vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectroscopy is one of the most powerful techniques for the determination of absolute configurations (AC), as it does not require any specific UV/vis chromophores, no chemical derivatization, and no growth of suitable crystals. In the past decade, it has become increasingly recognized by chemists from various fields of synthetic chemistry such as total synthesis and drug discovery as well as from developers of asymmetric catalysts. This perspective article gives an overview about the most important experimental aspects of a VCD-based AC determination and explains the theoretical analysis. The comparison of experimental and computational spectra that leads to the final conclusion about the AC of the target molecules is described. In addition, the review summarizes unique VCD studies carried out in the period 2008-2018 that focus on the determination of unknown ACs of new compounds, which were obtained in its enantiopure form either through direct asymmetric synthesis or chiral chromatography.

Enantioselective Copper-Catalyzed Oxy-Alkynylation of Diazo Compounds

Enantioselective catalytic methods allowing the addition of both a nucleophile and an electrophile onto diazo compounds give a fast access into important building blocks. Herein, we report the highly enantioselective oxyalkynylation of diazo compounds using ethynylbenziodoxol-(on)e reagents and a simple copper bisoxazoline catalyst. The obtained α-benzoyloxy propargylic esters are useful building blocks, which are difficult to synthesize in enantiopure form using other methods. The obtained products could be efficiently transformed into vicinal diols and α-hydroxy propargylic esters without loss in enantiopurity.

Enantioselective Intermolecular C-H Functionalization of Allylic and Benzylic sp(3) C-H Bonds Using N-Sulfonyl-1,2,3-triazoles

The enantioselective intermolecular sp(3) C-H functionalization at the allylic and benzylic positions was achieved using rhodium-catalyzed reactions with 4-phenyl-N-(methanesulfonyl)-1,2,3-triazole. The optimum dirhodium tetracarboxylate catalyst for these reactions was Rh2(S-NTTL)4. The rhodium-bound α-imino carbene intermediates preferentially reacted with tertiary over primary C-H bonds in good yields and moderate levels of enantioselectivity (66-82% ee). This work demonstrates that N-sulfonyltriazoles can be applied to the effective C-H functionalization at sp(3) C-H bonds of substrates containing additional functionality.

DFT/TDDFT insights into the chemistry, biochemistry and photophysics of copper coordination compounds

Highlighting the recent progress in DFT/TDDFT application to coordination chemistry of copper.