The legacy of Gilbert Newton Lewis (1875-1946) pervades the lexicon of chemical bonding and reactivity. The power of his concept of donor-acceptor bonding is evident in the eponymous foundations of electron-pair acceptors (Lewis acids) and donors (Lewis bases). Lewis recognized that acids are not restricted to those substances that contain hydrogen (Brønsted acids), and helped overthrow the "modern cult of the proton". His discovery ushered in the use of Lewis acids as reagents and catalysts for organic reactions. However, in recent years, the recognition that Lewis bases can also serve in this capacity has grown enormously. Most importantly, it has become increasingly apparent that the behavior of Lewis bases as agents for promoting chemical reactions is not merely as an electronic complement of the cognate Lewis acids: in fact Lewis bases are capable of enhancing both the electrophilic and nucleophilic character of molecules to which they are bound. This diversity of behavior leads to a remarkable versatility for the catalysis of reactions by Lewis bases.

Catalyst design in asymmetric reaction development has traditionally been driven by empiricism, wherein experimentalists attempt to qualitatively recognize structural patterns to improve selectivity. Machine learning algorithms and chemoinformatics can potentially accelerate this process by recognizing otherwise inscrutable patterns in large datasets. Herein we report a computationally guided workflow for chiral catalyst selection using chemoinformatics at every stage of development. Robust molecular descriptors that are agnostic to the catalyst scaffold allow for selection of a universal training set on the basis of steric and electronic properties. This set can be used to train machine learning methods to make highly accurate predictive models over a broad range of selectivity space. Using support vector machines and deep feed-forward neural networks, we demonstrate accurate predictive modeling in the chiral phosphoric acid–catalyzed thiol addition to N-acylimines.

Stereochemical Course of Addition2.1.2.1. Lewis Acid-Aldehyde Complexes. In this family of additions, the chiral Lewis acid serves both as a activator and the stereocontrolling agent. Understanding the structure of the Lewis acid‚ Scheme 5 Scheme 3 Scheme 4 Scheme 6

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Despite the widespread application of Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling to forge carbon-carbon bonds, the structure of the reactive intermediates underlying the key transmetalation step from the boron reagent to the palladium catalyst remains uncertain. Here we report the use of low-temperature rapid injection nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and kinetic studies to generate, observe, and characterize these previously elusive complexes. Specifically, this work establishes the identity of three different species containing palladium-oxygen-boron linkages, a tricoordinate boronic acid complex, and two tetracoordinate boronate complexes with 2:1 and 1:1 stoichiometry with respect to palladium. All of these species transfer their boron-bearing aryl groups to a coordinatively unsaturated palladium center in the critical transmetalation event.

ConspectusIn the panoply of modern synthetic methods for forming carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds, the transition metal-catalyzed cross coupling of organometallic nucleophiles with organic electrophiles enjoys a preeminent status. The preparative utility of these reactions is, in large measure, a consequence of the wide variety of organometallic donors that have been conscripted into service. The most common of these reagents are organic derivatives of tin, boron, and zinc, which each possess unique advantages and shortcomings. Because of their low cost, low toxicity, and high chemical stability, organosilanes have emerged as viable alternatives to the conventional reagents in recent years. However, unlike the tin-and zinc-based reactions that require no activation or the boron-based reactions that require only heating with mild bases, silicon-based cross-coupling reactions often require heating in the presence of a fluoride source; this has significantly hampered the widespread acceptance of organosilanes.To address the "fluoride problem", we have introduced a new paradigm for palladium-catalyzed, silicon-based cross-coupling reactions that employs organosilanols, a previously underutilized class of silicon reagents. The use of organosilanols either in the presence of Brønsted bases or as their silanolate salts represents a simple and mild alternative to the classic fluoride-based activation method. Organosilanols are easily available by many well-established methods for introducing carbon-silicon bonds onto alkenes, alkynes and arenes, and heteroarenes. Moreover, we have developed four different protocols for the generation of alkali metal salts of, vinyl-, alkenyl-, alkynyl-, aryl-, and heteroarylsilanolates: (1) reversible deprotonation with weak Brønsted bases, (2) irreversible deprotonation with strong Brønsted bases, (3) isolation of the salts from irreversible deprotonation, and (4) silanolate exchange with disiloxanes. We have demonstrated the advantages of each of these methods for a number of different coupling classes.The defining feature of this new process is the formation of a covalently linked palladium silanolate species that facilitates the critical transmetalation step. We have verified the intermediacy of a critical species that contains the key Si-O-Pd linkage by its identification as the resting state in reaction mixtures, by X-ray analysis, and by demonstrating its competence in thermal cross-coupling with no * Address Correspondence to: Professor Scott E. Denmark, 245 Roger Adams Laboratory, Box 18, Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois, 600 S. Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, phone: (217) 333-0066, fax: (217) 333-3984, email: denmark@scs.uiuc "...Work in this field (silicon-based cross-coupling) has been quite active since the initial disclosure of siletane cross-coupling from these laboratories... Future studies are focused on several fronts, including the extension of scope to incorporate less reactive substrates such as chlorides and triflates, further optimiza...

Despite the fact that halogenation of alkenes has been known for centuries, enantioselective variants of this reaction have only recently been developed. In the past three years, catalytic enantioselective versions of halofunctionalizations with the four common halogens have appeared and although important breakthroughs, they represent just the very beginnings of a nascent field. This Minireview provides a critical analysis of the challenges that accompany the development of general and highly enantioselective halofunctionalization reactions. Moreover, the focus herein, diverges from previous reviews of the field by identifying the various modes of catalysis and the different strategies implemented for asymmetric induction.

Studies toward the development of an enantioselective diazomethane-based cyclopropanation reagent derived from bis(oxazoline)palladium(II) complexes are reported. Several simple palladium chelates, 2 and 7, in addition to the novel carbon-bound complexes 15 were synthesized and evaluated in the cyclopropanation of various electron-deficient olefins. The X-ray crystal structure of aryl−bis(oxazoline)palladium complex 15c is described. Although all catalysts efficiently affected cyclopropanation, all products were racemic. An intriguing relationship between substitution on the oxazoline ring, particularly the commonly-derivatized 4-position, and catalyst efficiency was discovered. The results are rationalized by either partial or complete bis(oxazoline) decomplexation during the course of the reaction.