1 research outputs found
Integrating Organic Lewis Acid and Redox Catalysis: The Phenalenyl Cation in Dual Role
In
recent years, merging different types of catalysis in a single
pot has drawn considerable attention and these catalytic processes
have mainly relied upon metals. However, development of a completely
metal free approach integrating organic redox and organic Lewis acidic
property into a single system has been missing in the current literature.
This study establishes that a redox active phenalenyl cation can activate
one of the substrates by single electron transfer process while the
same can activate the other substrate by a donor–acceptor type
interaction using its Lewis acidity. This approach has successfully
achieved light and metal-free catalytic C–H functionalization
of unactivated arenes at ambient temperature (39 entries, including
core moiety of a top-selling molecule boscalid), an economically attractive
alternative to the rare metal-based multicatalysts process. A tandem
approach involving trapping of reaction intermediates, spectroscopy
along with density functional theory calculations unravels the dual
role of phenalenyl cation