Darren Poole

Controllable assembly: The first intermolecular aminosulfonylation of terminal alkynes with sodium sulfinates and TMSN₃ is reported. This three-component coupling, which shows excellent functional group tolerance, proceeds through sequential hydroazidation of the terminal alkyne and addition of a sulfonyl radical to the resultant vinyl azide. This enables the stereoselective synthesis of a wide range of β-sulfonyl N-unprotected enamines.

[Communication]
Yongquan Ning, Qinghe Ji, Peiqiu Liao, Edward A. Anderson, Xihe Bi
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., July 07, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201705122 Read article

Alkylated indolizines: Using (S)-TRIP as monofunctional catalyst, several alkylated indolizines were synthesized in good yields and with enantiomeric ratios of up to 98:2.

[Communication]
José Tiago Menezes Correia, Benjamin List, Fernando Coelho
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., June 01, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201700513 Read article

New direction: An amide-directed ortho and lateral C−H sodiation is enabled by sodium hydride (NaH) in the presence of either sodium iodide (NaI) or lithium iodide (LiI). The transient organosodium intermediates could be transformed into functionalized aromatic compounds.

[Communication]
Yinhua Huang, Guo Hao Chan, Shunsuke Chiba
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., April 27, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201702512 Read article

Breaking the mirror (plane): A palladium-catalyzed desymmetrization strategy via β C−H activation provides an alternate approach for solving the age-old challenge of introducing an α-methyl stereocenter to a molecule.

[Highlight]
David A. Nagib
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., April 28, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201703311 Read article

Something borrowed: A manganese complex stabilized by a PN₅P-pincer ligand catalyzes the multicomponent synthesis of pyrimidines from amidines and up to three (different) alcohols. The consecutive 4-component reaction combines the concept of borrowing hydrogen or hydrogen autotransfer with dehydrogenation condensation to permit selective C−N and C−C bond formation.

[Communication]
Nicklas Deibl, Rhett Kempe
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., January 12, 2017, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201611318. Read article

Enantiospecific alkynylation: Enantioenriched secondary and tertiary alkyl pinacolboronic esters undergo enantiospecific deborylative alkynylation through a Zweifel-type alkenylation followed by a 1,2-elimination reaction to give alkynes in high yield and essentially complete enantiospecificity.

[Communication]
Yahui Wang, Adam Noble, Eddie L. Myers, Varinder K. Aggarwal
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., March 02, 2016, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201600599. Read article

Copper light: Room-temperature C−H arylations of heteroarenes were accomplished with inexpensive copper compounds by photoinduced catalysis. The expedient copper catalysis leads to site-selective C−H arylations of non-aromatic oxazolines under mild reaction conditions, and provides step-economical access to the alkaloid natural products balsoxin and texamine.

[Communication]
Fanzhi Yang, Julian Koeller, Lutz Ackermann
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., March 09, 2016, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201512027. Read article