Removable tridentate directing groups inspired by pincer ligands have been designed to stabilize otherwise kinetically and thermodynamically disfavored 6-membered alkyl palladacycle intermediates. This family of directing groups enables regioselective remote hydrocarbofunctionalization of several synthetically useful alkene-containing substrate classes, including 4-pentenoic acids, allylic alcohols, homoallyl amines, and bis-homoallylamines, under Pd(II) catalysis. In conjunction with previous findings, we demonstrate regiodivergent hydrofunctionalization of 3-butenoic acid derivatives to afford either Markovnikov or anti-Markovnikov addition products depending on directing group choice. Preliminary mechanistic and computational data are presented to support the proposed catalytic cycle.
Activation of inert sp 3 β-C−H bonds has attracted widespread attention and been developed with significant progress in recent years, but understanding the mechanism of this kind of reaction continues to be one of the most challenging topics in organic chemistry. In this paper, the possible reaction mechanisms and origin of stereoselectivity in the reaction between saturated carbonyl compounds with enones generating cyclopentenes catalyzed by N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) have been investigated using density functional theory. The computational results show that the additive DBU plays an important role in NHC-catalyzed C−H activation. Analyses of the natural bond orbital charge and global reaction index indicate that NHC can lower the energy barrier of the entire reaction by activating the α/β-C−H bond rather than by strengthening the nucleophilicity of the reactant as a Lewis base. This is remarkably at variance from previous reports. In addition, the π•••π stacking between the phenyl of the enone and the conjugated system of the NHC-bounded enolate intermediate has been found by the analyses of distortion/interaction and atom-in-molecule to be responsible for the stereoselectivity. These results shed light on the detailed reaction mechanism and the significant role of the NHC organocatalyst and offer valuable insights into the rational design of potential catalysts for this kind of highly stereoselective reaction.
In this study, a density functional theory (DFT) study has been carried out to investigate the mechanisms of Rh(I)-catalyzed carbenoid carbon insertion into a C-C bond reaction between benzocyclobutenol (R1) and diazoester (R2). The calculated results indicate that the reaction proceeds through five stages: deprotonation of R1, cleavage of the C-C bond, carbenoid carbon insertion, intramolecular aldol reaction, and protonation of the alkoxyl-Rh(I) intermediate. We have suggested and studied two possible pathways according to different coordination patterns (including ketone-type and enol-type coordination forms) in the fourth stage and found that the enol-type pathway is favorable, making the coordination mode of the Rh(I) center in the oxa-π-allyl Rh(I) intermediate clear in this reaction system. Moreover, four possible protonation channels have been calculated in the fifth stage, and the computational results show that the H2O-assisted proton transfer channel is the most favorable. The first step of the third stage is rate-determining, and the first steps in stages 3 and 4 play important roles in determining the stereoselectivities. Moreover, the analyses of distortion/interaction, natural bond orbital (NBO), and molecular orbital (MO) have been performed to better understand this title reaction. Furthermore, the pathway corresponding to the RR configurational product is the most favorable path, which is consistent with the experimental result. This work should be helpful for understanding the detailed reaction mechanism and the origin of stereoselectivities of the title reaction and thus could provide valuable insights into rational design of more efficient catalysts for this type of reactions.
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