1245640-46-3Relevant academic research and scientific papers
Spin-Center Shift-Enabled Direct Enantioselective α-Benzylation of Aldehydes with Alcohols
Nacsa, Eric D.,MacMillan, David W. C.
supporting information, p. 3322 - 3330 (2018/03/13)
Nature routinely engages alcohols as leaving groups, as DNA biosynthesis relies on the removal of water from ribonucleoside diphosphates by a radical-mediated "spin-center shift" (SCS) mechanism. Alcohols, however, remain underused as alkylating agents in synthetic chemistry due to their low reactivity in two-electron pathways. We report herein an enantioselective α-benzylation of aldehydes using alcohols as alkylating agents based on the mechanistic principle of spin-center shift. This strategy harnesses the dual activation modes of photoredox and organocatalysis, engaging the alcohol by SCS and capturing the resulting benzylic radical with a catalytically generated enamine. Mechanistic studies provide evidence for SCS as a key elementary step, identify the origins of competing reactions, and enable improvements in chemoselectivity by rational photocatalyst design.
Enantioselective α-benzylation of aldehydes via photoredox organocatalysis
Shih, Hui-Wen,Vander Wal, Mark N.,Grange, Rebecca L.,MacMillan, David W. C.
supporting information; experimental part, p. 13600 - 13603 (2010/11/18)
The first enantioselective aldehyde α-benzylation using electron-deficient aryl and heteroaryl substrates has been accomplished. The productive merger of a chiral imidazolidinone organocatalyst and a commercially available iridium photoredox catalyst in the presence of household fluorescent light directly affords the desired homobenzylic stereogenicity in good to excellent yield and enantioselectivity. The utility of this methodology has been demonstrated via rapid access to an enantioenriched drug target for angiogenesis suppression.
