Carbon monoxide was discovered and identified in the 18th century. Since the first applications in industry 80 years ago, academic and industrial laboratories have broadly explored CO's use in chemical reactions. Today organic chemists routinely employ CO in organic chemistry to synthesize all kinds of carbonyl compounds. Despite all these achievements and a century of carbonylation catalysis, many important research questions and challenges remain. Notably, apart from academic developments, industry applies carbonylation reactions with CO on bulk scale. In fact, today the largest applications of homogeneous catalysis (regarding scale) are carbonylation reactions, especially hydroformylations. In addition, the vast majority of acetic acid is produced via carbonylation of methanol (Monsanto or Cativa process). The carbonylation of olefins/alkynes with nucleophiles, such as alcohols and amines, represent another important type of such reactions. In this Account, we discuss our work on various carbonylations of unsaturated compounds and related reactions. Rhodium-catalyzed isomerization and hydroformylation reactions of internal olefins provide straightforward access to higher value aldehydes. Catalytic hydroaminomethylations offer an ideal way to synthesize substituted amines and even heterocycles directly. More recently, our group has also developed so-called alternative metal catalysts based on iridium, ruthenium, and iron. What about the future of carbonylation reactions? CO is already one of the most versatile C1 building blocks for organic synthesis and is widely used in industry. However, because of CO's high toxicity and gaseous nature, organic chemists are often reluctant to apply carbonylations more frequently. In addition, new regulations have recently made the transportation of carbon monoxide more difficult. Hence, researchers will need to develop and more frequently use practical and benign CO-generating reagents. Apart from formates, alcohols, and metal carbonyls, carbon dioxide also offers interesting options. Industrial chemists seek easy to prepare catalysts and patent-free ligands/complexes. In addition, non-noble metal complexes will interest both academic and industrial researchers. The novel Lucite process for methyl methacrylate is an important example of an improved catalyst. This reaction makes use of a specific palladium/bisphosphine catalyst, which led to the successful implementation of the technology. More active and productive catalysts for related carbonylations of less reactive olefins would allow for other large scale applications of this methodology. From an academic point of view, researchers continue to look for selective reactions with more functionalized olefins. Finally, because of the volatility of simple metal carbonyl complexes, carbonylation reactions today remain a domain of homogeneous catalysis. The invention of more stable and recyclable heterogeneous catalysts or metal-free carbonylations (radical carbonylations) will be difficult, but could offer interesting challenge...
Nitriles and alkenes are important synthetic intermediates with complementary reactivity that play a central role in the preparation of materials, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and agrochemicals. Here, we report a nickel-catalyzed transfer hydrocyanation reaction between a wide range (60 examples) of alkyl nitriles and alkenes. This strategy not only overcomes the toxicity challenge posed by the use of HCN in traditional approaches, but also encompasses distinct chemical advances, including retro-hydrocyanation and anti-Markovnikov regioselectivity. In a broader context, this work highlights an approach to the reversible hydrofunctionalization of alkenes through thermodynamically controlled transfer reactions to circumvent the use of volatile and hazardous reagents in the laboratory.
Carbonylation reactions of alkenes constitute the most important industrial processes in homogeneous catalysis. Despite the tremendous progress in this transformation, the development of advanced catalyst systems to improve their activity and widen the range of feedstocks continues to be essential for new practical applications. Herein a palladium catalyst based on 1,2-bis((tert-butyl(pyridin-2-yl)phosphanyl)methyl)benzene L3 (pytbpx) is rationally designed and synthesized. Application of this system allows a general alkoxycarbonylation of sterically hindered and demanding olefins including all kinds of tetra-, tri- and 1,1-disubstituted alkenes as well as natural products and pharmaceuticals to the desired esters in excellent yield. Industrially relevant bulk ethylene is functionalized with high activity (TON: >1,425,000; TOF: 44,000 h−1 for initial 18 h) and selectivity (>99%). Given its generality and efficiency, we expect this catalytic system to immediately impact both the chemical industry and research laboratories by providing a practical synthetic tool for the transformation of nearly any alkene into a versatile ester product.
A general and highly regioselective synthesis of pyrroles via ruthenium-catalyzed three-component reactions has been developed. A variety of ketones including less reactive aryl and alkyl substrates were efficiently converted in combination with different type of amines and vicinal diols into various substituted pyrroles in reasonable to excellent isolated yields. Additionally, α-functionalized ketones gave synthetically interesting amido-, alkoxy-, aryloxy-, and phosphate-substituted pyrroles in a straightforward manner. The synthetic protocol proceeds in the presence of a commercially available ruthenium catalyst system and catalytic amount of base. It proceeds with high atom-efficiency and shows a broad substrate scope and functional group tolerance, making it a highly practical approach for preparation of various pyrrole derivatives.
During the last 50 years, the palladium-catalyzed carbonylation reactions underwent continuous development. Apart from carbonylation of aromatic (pseudo)-halide and alkene (C-sp2) compounds, the use of C(sp3)–X compounds such as allyl compounds, benzyl compounds, and aliphatic alkanes have become the most useful tool for the synthesis of β,γ-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, aliphatic carboxylic acid, and their derivatives. The recently budding development in the area of palladium-catalyzed C(sp3)–X (especially X = H) activation makes us feel it necessary to file a summary on the past, current contributions, and a prospective outlook on the palladium-catalyzed carbonylative transformation of C(sp3)–X bonds, which is the focus of this review.
Various olefins can be smoothly transformed in the presence of a Pd‐based catalyst system and (hetero)aromatic amines or nitroarenes to synthetically interesting amides in good yields and often with high regioselectivity (see scheme). Combining this atom‐efficient procedure with established functionalizations of the resulting products allows the efficient preparation of quinolines.
The synthesis of carboxylic acid derivatives from unsaturated hydrocarbons is an important process for the preparation of polymers, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and agrochemicals. Despite its industrial relevance, the traditional Reppe-type carbonylation reaction using pressurized CO is of limited applicability to laboratory-scale synthesis because of: (1) the safety hazards associated with the use of CO, (2) the need for special equipment to handle pressurized gas, (3) the low reactivity of several relevant nucleophiles and (4) the necessity to employ different, often tailor-made, catalytic systems for each nucleophile. Herein we demonstrate that a shuttle-catalysis approach enables a CO- and HCl-free transfer process between an inexpensive reagent, butyryl chloride, and a wide range of unsaturated substrates to access the corresponding acid chlorides in good yields. This new transformation provides access to a broad range of carbonyl-containing products through the in situ transformation of the reactive acid chloride intermediate. In a broader context, this work demonstrates that isodesmic shuttle-catalysis reactions can unlock elusive catalytic reactions.
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