Journal of the American Chemical Society
Article
a
to yield the products in 81−93% yields. Of note, nitriles such
as ethyl cyanoacetate (13), malonitrile (14), and β-ketonitrile
(15) all reacted well to give the desired products in good yields
despite the fact that addition of amine-boryl radicals to nitrile
groups has been documented.27 Furthermore, no over-
oxidation of radical adducts or α,α-dialkylation of the 1,3-
dicarbonyl derivatives was observed under the reaction
conditions, highlighting the mildness of the current protocol
compared to conventional chemical oxidation conditions28 or
alkylation with alkyl halides under basic conditions. Simple
carboxylic esters such as methyl propionate is not reactive
under the conditions, presumably due to the difficulty in
generating the corresponding weakly electrophilic carbon
radical under our conditions (vide infra).
The scope of the olefin was then examined and a high level
of functional group tolerance was observed. Mono- or
disubstituted unactivated olefins bearing a free hydroxyl
(17), tosylate (18), chloro (19), carboxylic ester (20), ketone
(21), ether (22), silyl (23), boronate (24), amide (25), cyano
(26, 27), and carbamate (28, 29) groups were all well
tolerated, providing the desired products in 59−96% yields.
Olefins with alkyl rings of various size (30−33), electron-rich
carbazole (34), or electron-deficient arenes (35−37) all
underwent the reaction smoothly. While Minisci-type
borylation of pyridines was achieved using an amine-borane
very recently,29 no such reactivity was observed under our
conditions, and the desired product 37 was obtained in 70%
yield. Internal olefins such as cis-cyclooctene and 2,3-dimethyl-
but-2-ene were also amenable, giving rise to the products 38
and 39 in 95% and 76% yields, respectively. As expected, the
reactions of 2-methylbut-2-ene with dimethyl malonate or N-
phenylcarbamoylacetate afforded the products 40 and 41 as
mixtures of regioisomers. When 1,5-hexadiene was subjected to
the reaction conditions, 1,6-dialkylated product 42 was
obtained in 78% yield. To further illustrate the utility of the
present method, a diverse range of structurally complex olefins
derived from drug molecules, natural products, and materials
precursors were examined (Figure 3). To our delight, the
existing functional groups and structural complexity exerted a
negligible influence on the efficiency of the reaction, leading to
potentially valuable products 43−67 in moderate to excellent
yields. The structure of product 54 was confirmed by X-ray
diffraction analysis. The practicability of the methodology was
further demonstrated by the synthesis of 38, 63, and 66 on
preparative scales. Overall, the current dual HAT-enabled
hydroalkylation protocol exhibits much broader substrate
scope with higher functional group tolerance compared to
existing oxidant- or base-promoted approaches.28,30
Table 1. Reaction Optimization
b
entry
borane
H atom donor
yield (%)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
NHC-BH3
QB1
QB2
QB3
QB4
QB5
QB5
QB5
−
TRIPSH
TRIPSH
TRIPSH
TRIPSH
TRIPSH
TRIPSH
(TRIPS)2
(TRIPS)2
(TRIPS)2
−
0
45
75
46
45
89
92 (91)
91
7
c
d
8
9
10
11
QB5
−
QB5
QB5
18
0
0
−
e
12
f
(TRIPS)2
(TRIPS)2
13
0
a
Reaction conditions: All reactions were carried out with 1 (0.2
mmol), 2 (0.8 mmol), PC (1 mol %), borane (20 mol %), TRIPSH
(10 mol %) or (TRIPS)2 (5 mol %), and PhCF3 (0.5 mL) unless
otherwise noted. The reactions were irradiated with a 40-W Kessil
b
blue LED under nitrogen atmosphere for 48 h. Yields were
determined by 1H NMR analysis of the crude reaction mixture.
c
d
e
f
Isolated yield. Benzene as the solvent. Without PC. Without light.
BArF : tetrakis[3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)-phenyl]borate.
4
bonding interaction with the carbonyl group of the substrate.
To our delight, a dramatic increase in the yield of 3 was indeed
observed when readily available 3-quinuclidinol−borane QB2
was utilized (75%, entry 3). Boranes QB3 with the hydroxyl
group protected or QB4 derived from 3-(hydroxymethyl)-
quinuclidine proved to be less effective (entries 4 and 5),
indicating the hydroxyl group and its position play a pivotal
role. Further evaluation of substituent effect on the
quinuclidinol scaffold led to the identification of borane QB5
as the optimal hydridic HAT catalyst and the yield of product
3 was increased to 89% (entry 6, see section 2 of the
5 mol % of easy-to-handle and odorless bis(2,4,6-triisopropyl-
phenyl) disulfide [(TRIPS)2] provided 3 in 91% yield upon
isolation (entry 7).26 Same efficiency was observed when
benzene was used as the solvent (entry 8). Notably, control
experiments confirmed that visible light and photocatalyst are
indispensable while the absence of the borane catalyst or the
disulfide resulted in a significant decrease in the yield of 3
(entries 9−13).
Mechanistic Investigations. Next, we turned our
attention to investigate the mechanism of the reaction. The
radical nature of the reaction was first confirmed by a series of
experiments (Figure 4A). A radical trapping experiment with
2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO) completely
shut down the reactivity with two radical adducts 68 and 69
being detected by high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS),
indicating the involvement of the electrophilic malonyl radical
and the thiyl radical, respectively. Radical clock experiment
using α-cyclopropyl-styrene 70 provided the ring-opened
product 71 in 67% yield as a mixture of E/Z isomers.
Similarly, bicyclic terpene β-pinene also afforded the ring-
opened product 72 in 69% yield. Stern−Volmer luminescence
quenching experiments showed that the disulfide efficiently
quenches the excited state of the iridium photocatalyst while
Reaction Scope. With the optimal conditions in hand, we
explored the scope and limitations of the reaction (Figure 2). A
diverse array of active methylene compounds was found to be
suitable alkyl radical precursors. In addition to 1,3-diesters (4−
6), triethylmethanetricarboxylate (7), β-ketoester (8), β-
ketoamide (9), carbamoylacetates with a free NH2 (10), an
N-alkyl (11) or an N-aryl (12) group all showed high reactivity
11253
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 11251−11261