A nucleophilic catalysis method providing a concise synthesis of di-, tri-, and tetrasubstituted pyrroles is described. This regioselective one-pot method relies on nucleophilic catalysis of the intermolecular addition of oximes to activated alkynes and thermal rearrangement of the in situ generated O-vinyl oximes to form pyrroles that contain a functional group handle at the C3/C4 position.

A novel gold-catalyzed method for the regioselective synthesis of highly substituted pyrroles directly from oximes and alkynes was developed via independent optimization of two key steps of the process. Importantly, a cationic gold(I) species was shown to activate multiple steps along the reaction pathway and therefore act as a multifaceted catalyst. Initial gold-promoted addition of the oxime oxygen to the activated alkyne afforded the O-vinyloxime in situ. The O-vinyloxime was subsequently transformed into the pyrrole via a gold-catalyzed tautomerization, [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement, and cyclodehydration process. Notably, this method provides a functional group handle in the form of an ester at the 3/4-position for further exploitation. The proposed mechanistic pathway is supported by a novel application of the Huisgen cycloaddition click reaction, which was used to probe the relative stability of substituted O-vinyloximes. The intermediacy of N-alkenylhydroxylamine O-vinyl ethers and imino ketones or imino aldehydes along the reaction pathway were determined by high-temperature (1)H, (2)H{(1)H}, and (13)C{(1)H} NMR experiments. X-ray crystallographic evidence was used to further support the mechanistic hypothesis.

O-Vinyl oximes were synthesised from the reaction of oximes with activated alkynes and subsequently rearranged using gold catalysis to afford highly substituted pyrroles in an efficient and regiocontrolled process. Additionally, pyrroles were formed directly from oximes and activated alkynes in a multifaceted catalysis process.

This article describes a comparison between the photophysical properties of two charge-transfer dyes adsorbed onto NiO via two different binding moieties. Transient spectroscopy measurements suggest that the structure of the anchoring group affects both the rate of charge recombination between the dye and NiO surface and the rate of dye regeneration by an iodide/triiodide redox couple. This is consistent with the performance of the dyes in p-type dye sensitised solar cells. A key finding was that the recombination rate differed in the presence of the redox couple. These results have important implications on the study of electron transfer at dye|semiconductor interfaces for solar energy applications.

Three dyes for p-type dye-sensitised solar cells containing a novel doubly anchored pyrrole donor group were synthesised and their solar cell performances were evaluated. Dye 1 was comprised of a phenyl-thiophene linker and a maleonitrile acceptor, which has been established as an effective motif in other push-pull dyes. Two boron dipyrromethane analogues, dyes 2 and 3, were made with different linker groups to compare their effect on the behaviour of these dyes adsorbed onto nickel oxide (dye|NiO) under illumination. The photoexcited states of dye|NiO were probed using resonance Raman spectroscopy and compared to dyes anchored using the conventional 4-aminobenzoic acid moiety (P1 and 4). All three components, the anchor, the linker and the acceptor group were found to alter both the electronic structure following excitation and the overall solar cell performance. The bodipy acceptor gave a better performance than the maleonitrile acceptor when the pyrrole anchor was used, which is the opposite of the triphenylamine push-pull dyes. The linker group was found to have a large influence on the short-circuit current and efficiency of the p-type cells constructed.