Herein, the development of visible light-mediated atom transfer radical addition (ATRA) of haloalkanes onto alkenes and alkynes using the reductive and oxidative quenching of [Ir{dF(CF(3))ppy}(2)(dtbbpy)]PF(6) and [Ru(bpy)(3)]Cl(2) is presented. Initial investigations indicated that the oxidative quenching of photocatalysts could effectively be utilized for ATRA, and since that report, the protocol has been expanded by broadening the scope of the reaction in terms of the photocatalysts, substrates, and solvents. In addition, further modifications of the reaction conditions allowed for the efficient ATRA of perfluoroalkyl iodides onto alkenes and alkynes utilizing the reductive quenching cycle of [Ru(bpy)(3)]Cl(2) with sodium ascorbate as the sacrificial electron donor. These results signify the complementary nature of the oxidative and reductive quenching pathways of photocatalysts and the ability to predictably direct reaction outcome through modification of the reaction conditions.

An efficient transition-metal-free amination of benzoxazoles has been developed. With catalytic amounts of tetrabutylammoniumiodide (TBAI), aqueous solutions of H(2)O(2) or TBHP as co-oxidant and under mild reaction conditions, highly desirable 2-aminobenzoxazoles were isolated in excellent yields of up to 93%. First mechanistic experiments indicate the in situ iodination of the secondary amine as the putative mode of activation.

Phosphine oxides and related phosphorus-containing functional groups such as phosphonates and phosphinates are established structural motifs that are still underrepresented in today’s drug discovery projects, and only few examples can be found among approved drugs. In this account, the physicochemical and in vitro properties of phosphine oxides and related phosphorus-containing functional groups are reported and compared to more commonly used structural motifs in drug discovery. Furthermore, the impact on the physicochemical properties of a real drug scaffold is exemplified by a series of phosphorus-containing analogs of imatinib. We demonstrate that phosphine oxides are highly polar functional groups leading to high solubility and metabolic stability but occasionally at the cost of reduced permeability. We conclude that phosphine oxides and related phosphorus-containing functional groups are valuable polar structural elements and that they deserve to be considered as a routine part of every medicinal chemist’s toolbox.

Hypervalent iodine compounds, in particular aryl-λ3-iodanes, have been used extensively as electrophilic group-transfer reagents. Even though these compounds are superior substrates in terms of reactivity and stability, their utilization is accompanied by stoichiometric amounts of an aryl iodide as waste. This highly nonpolar side product can be tedious to separate from the desired target molecules and significantly reduces the overall atom efficiency of these transformations. In this short review, we want to give a brief summary of recently developed methods, in which this arising former waste is used as an additional reagent in cascade transformations to generate multiple substituted products in one step and with high atom efficiency.

The first direct alkynylation of 2-vinylphenols was developed. The rationally optimized hypervalent iodine reagent TIPS-EBX* in combination with [(Cp*RhCl2)2] as a C-H-activating transition metal catalyst enables the construction of a variety of highly substituted 1,3-enynes in high yields of up to 98%. This novel C-H activation method shows excellent chemoselectivity and exclusive (Z)-stereoselectivity, and it is also remarkably mild and tolerates a variety of functional groups. Furthermore, synthetic modifications of the resulting 1,3-enynes were demonstrated. To our knowledge, this is the first example for an OH-directed C-H alkynylation with hypervalent iodine reagents.

An efficient electrophilic alkynylation of azlactones (oxazol-5(4H)-ones) is developed using alkynyl(phenyl)iodonium salts as the electrophilic alkyne source. After remarkably short reaction times, the desired alkyne functionalized azlactones are obtained in 60-97% yield and can be transformed easily into a variety of quaternary α-amino acid derivatives.

This review discusses the origins of iodine-mediated oxidation catalysis and gives a comprehensive overview on this young field of research. The focus is set on oxidative C-X bond-forming reactions starting from two unfunctionalized C-H and X-H bonds. In addition, iodine-mediated oxidative domino reactions will be discussed.

Carvone is a sustainable and readily available starting material for organic synthesis. Herein, we present the syntheses of various natural product scaffolds that rely on a novel benzannulation involving the α-methyl group (C-10) of carvone to afford a versatile tetralin. The utility of our synthetic approach is highlighted by its application to a short synthesis of the ent-3,4-seco-atisane diterpenoid (-)-crotogoudin. The 13-step enantiospecific synthesis features a regioselective double oxidative dearomatization, a Diels-Alder cycloaddition with ethylene gas (to construct the bicyclo[2.2.2]octane framework), and a final acid-mediated lactonization. The versatility of this benzannulation strategy is demonstrated by its utility in the preparation of the carbon skeleton of ent-3,4-seco-abietane diterpenoids using an intramolecular oxidative dearomatization.