Catalytic C-H amination has recently emerged as a unique tool for the synthesis of amines. This tutorial review highlights the existing protocols catalyzed by metal complexes (rhodium, copper, ruthenium, manganese and palladium) allowing diastereo- and enantioselective C-H amination. Substrate-, catalyst- and reagent-controlled methodologies are detailed. They involve either catalytic nitrene C-H insertion or C-H activation.

A protocol for the efficient and selective reduction of carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide has been developed. Remarkably, this oxygen abstraction step can be performed with only the presence of catalytic cesium fluoride and a stoichiometric amount of a disilane in DMSO at room temperature. Rapid reduction of CO2 to CO could be achieved in only 2 h, which was observed by pressure measurements. To quantify the amount of CO produced, the reduction was coupled to an aminocarbonylation reaction using the two-chamber system, COware. The reduction was not limited to a specific disilane, since (Ph2MeSi)2 as well as (PhMe2Si)2 and (Me3Si)3SiH exhibited similar reactivity. Moreover, at a slightly elevated temperature, other fluoride salts were able to efficiently catalyze the CO2 to CO reduction. Employing a nonhygroscopic fluoride source, KHF2, omitted the need for an inert atmosphere. Substituting the disilane with silylborane, (pinacolato)BSiMe2Ph, maintained the high activity of the system, whereas the structurally related bis(pinacolato)diboron could not be activated with this fluoride methodology. Furthermore, this chemistry could be adapted to (13)C-isotope labeling of six pharmaceutically relevant compounds starting from Ba(13)CO3 in a newly developed three-chamber system.

Stereoselective catalytic intermolecular C-H amination of complex molecules is reported. Site-selective functionalizations occur with very good yields up to 91% and excellent d.e.s up to 99%. However, the precise nature of the nitrene C-H insertion remains a matter of debate despite several physical organic experiments.

The first organocatalyzed trapping of CO2 through C-C and C-O bond formation is reported. Alkynyl indoles together with catalytic amounts of an organic base and five equivalents of CO2 resulted in the formation new heterocyclic structures. These tricyclic indole-containing products were successfully prepared under mild reaction conditions from aromatic, heteroaromatic, and aliphatic alkynyl indoles with complete regioselectivity. Further investigations suggest that C-C bond formation is the initial intermolecular step, followed by lactone-forming C-O bond formation.

Transition-metal-catalyzed C-H amination via nitrene insertion allows the direct transformation of a C-H into a C-N bond. Given the ubiquity of C-H bonds in organic compounds, such a process raises the problem of regio- and chemoselectivity, a challenging goal even more difficult to tackle as the complexity of the substrate increases. Whereas excellent regiocontrol can be achieved by the use of an appropriate tether securing intramolecular addition of the nitrene, the intermolecular C-H amination remains much less predictable. This study aims at addressing this issue by capitalizing on an efficient stereoselective nitrene transfer involving the combination of a chiral aminating agent 1 with a chiral rhodium catalyst 2. Allylic C-H amination of terpenes and enol ethers occurs with excellent yields as well as with high regio-, chemo-, and diastereoselectivity as a result of the combination of steric and electronic factors. Conjugation of allylic C-H bonds with the π-bond would explain the chemoselectivity observed for cyclic substrates. Alkanes used in stoichiometric amounts are also efficiently functionalized with a net preference for tertiary equatorial C-H bonds. The selectivity, in this case, can be rationalized by steric and hyperconjugative effects. This study, therefore, provides useful information to better predict the site of C-H amination of complex molecules.

Reaction conditions for the three-component synthesis of aryl 1,3-diketones are reported applying the palladium-catalyzed carbonylative α-arylation of ketones with aryl bromides. The optimal conditions were found by using a catalytic system derived from [Pd(dba)2] (dba=dibenzylideneacetone) as the palladium source and 1,3-bis(diphenylphosphino)propane (DPPP) as the bidentate ligand. These transformations were run in the two-chamber reactor, COware, applying only 1.5 equivalents of carbon monoxide generated from the CO-releasing compound, 9-methylfluorene-9-carbonyl chloride (COgen). The methodology proved adaptable to a wide variety of aryl and heteroaryl bromides leading to a diverse range of aryl 1,3-diketones. A mechanistic investigation of this transformation relying on 31P and 13C NMR spectroscopy was undertaken to determine the possible catalytic pathway. Our results revealed that the combination of [Pd(dba)2] and DPPP was only reactive towards 4-bromoanisole in the presence of the sodium enolate of propiophenone suggesting that a [Pd(dppp)(enolate)] anion was initially generated before the oxidative-addition step. Subsequent CO insertion into an [Pd(Ar)(dppp)(enolate)] species provided the 1,3-diketone. These results indicate that a catalytic cycle, different from the classical carbonylation mechanism proposed by Heck, is operating. To investigate the effect of the dba ligand, the Pd0 precursor, [Pd(η3-1-PhC3H4)(η5-C5H5)], was examined. In the presence of DPPP, and in contrast to [Pd(dba)2], its oxidative addition with 4-bromoanisole occurred smoothly providing the [PdBr(Ar)(dppp)] complex. After treatment with CO, the acyl complex [Pd(CO)Br(Ar)(dppp)] was generated, however, its treatment with the sodium enolate led exclusively to the acylated enol in high yield. Nevertheless, the carbonylative α-arylation of 4-bromoanisole with either catalytic or stoichiometric [Pd(η3-1-PhC3H4)(η5-C5H5)] over a short reaction time, led to the 1,3-diketone product. Because none of the acylated enol was detected, this implied that a similar mechanistic pathway is operating as that observed for the same transformation with [Pd(dba)2] as the Pd source.

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Copper(I) complexes of a new participative triphosphane ligand (2 H ) have been prepared and structurally characterized, in particular [Cu(2 H )I] and [Cu(2)]2. Hydrogenation of the latter species afforded the trimetallic hydride species [Cu3(2)2(µ-H)] or in the presence of BEt3, [Cu(2 H )(HBEt3)]. Their formation evidences transient formation of [Cu(2 H )H] formed by hydrogenolysis of the Cu-N bond of [Cu(2)]2. [Cu(2 H )(HBEt3)] behaves like a hydride complex and inserts CO2 to yield the formate product [Cu(2 H )(O2CH)]. QTAIM analysis of the Cu-H-BEt3 interaction indicates a hydride complex stabilized by the Lewis acid BEt3.