114918-00-2Relevant academic research and scientific papers
Temporal separation of catalytic activities allows anti-Markovnikov reductive functionalization of terminal alkynes
Li, Le,Herzon, Seth B.
, p. 22 - 27 (2014)
There is currently great interest in the development of multistep catalytic processes in which one or several catalysts act sequentially to rapidly build complex molecular structures. Many enzymes - often the inspiration for new synthetic transformations - are capable of processing a single substrate through a chain of discrete, mechanistically distinct catalytic steps. Here, we describe an approach to emulate the efficiency of these natural reaction cascades within a synthetic catalyst by the temporal separation of catalytic activities. In this approach, a single catalyst exhibits multiple catalytic activities sequentially, allowing for the efficient processing of a substrate through a cascade pathway. Application of this design strategy has led to the development of a method to effect the anti-Markovnikov (linear-selective) reductive functionalization of terminal alkynes. The strategy of temporal separation may facilitate the development of other efficient synthetic reaction cascades.
