A thermodynamically controlled resolution has allowed for the generation of diastereomerically enriched complexes, by chirality transfer from an enantiopure building block to a dynamically racemic biaryl derivative. A switchable sense of induction could be achieved depending on the substituents of the chiral block.

Zeolites with the right shape and acid site density and strength, such as certain ZSM-5f orms, were able to cleanly decompose formic acid to carbon monoxide (CO), and the latter could be directly used in palladium-catalyzed carbonylation reactions.As imple two-reactors ystem was designed to produce CO convenientlya nd then furtherr eactt his gas in as afe way.T he two-reactor systemi sp articu-larly cheap,e asy to set up and use.I na ddition, the carbonylation conditions without pressure allowed for very efficientC Oi ncorporation, with only 1% of palladium(II) chloride (PdCl 2 )a nd Xantphos.

A simple and robust one-pot nucleophilic addition-ring contraction of α-bromo N-sulfonylpyrrolidinones has been achieved toward α-carbonylated N-sulfonylazetidines. In the presence of potassium carbonate, various nucleophiles, such as alcohols, phenols or anilines, have been efficiently incorporated into the azetidine derivatives. Moreover, the α-bromopyrrolidinone precursors could be selectively obtained in good yields by monobromination of cheap and easily available N-sulfonyl-2-pyrrolidinone derivatives.