Conversion of Amides into Esters by the Nickel-Catalyzed Activation of Amide C-N Bonds

The amide function is ubiquitous in natural compounds as well as in man-made molecules and materials. It is generally very stable and poorly reactive owing to its resonance-stabilized C–N group that imparts a planar geometry to amides. In contrast, carboxylic esters are generally reactive under a variety of mild conditions; therefore, it is not surprising that a number of direct methods are available to the chemist for converting esters into amides (amino-de-alkoxylation reaction) but very few for achieving the opposite transformation. Recently, Professors Neil Garg and Ken Houk from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA, USA) reported in Nature a groundbreaking method for converting amides into esters with a high degree of efficiency

Activation and discovery of earth-abundant metal catalysts using sodium tert-butoxide

First-row, earth-abundant metals offer an inexpensive and sustainable alternative to precious-metal catalysts. As such, iron and cobalt catalysts have garnered interest as replacements for alkene and alkyne hydrofunctionalization reactions. However, these have required the use of air- and moisture-sensitive catalysts and reagents, limiting both adoption by the non-expert as well as applicability, particularly in industrial settings. Here, we report a simple method for the use of earth-abundant metal catalysts by general activation with sodium tert-butoxide. Using only robust air- and moisture-stable reagents and pre-catalysts, both known and, significantly, novel catalytic activities have been successfully achieved, covering hydrosilylation, hydroboration, hydrovinylation, hydrogenation and [2π+2π] alkene cycloaddition. This activation method allows for the easy use of earth-abundant metals, including iron, cobalt, nickel and manganese, and represents a generic platform for the discovery and application of non-precious metal catalysis

Switching on elusive organometallic mechanisms with photoredox catalysis

Transition-metal-catalysed cross-coupling reactions have become one of the most used carbon–carbon and carbon–heteroatom bond-forming reactions in chemical synthesis. Recently, nickel catalysis has been shown to participate in a wide variety of C−C bond-forming reactions, most notably Negishi, Suzuki–Miyaura, Stille, Kumada and Hiyama couplings1,2. Despite the tremendous advances in C−C fragment couplings, the ability to forge C−O bonds in a general fashion via nickel catalysis has been largely unsuccessful. The challenge for nickel-mediated alcohol couplings has been the mechanistic requirement for the critical C–O bond-forming step (formally known as the reductive elimination step) to occur via a Ni(iii) alkoxide intermediate. Here we demonstrate that visible-light-excited photoredox catalysts can modulate the preferred oxidation states of nickel alkoxides in an operative catalytic cycle, thereby providing transient access to Ni(iii) species that readily participate in reductive elimination. Using this synergistic merger of photoredox and nickel catalysis, we have developed a highly efficient and general carbon–oxygen coupling reaction using abundant alcohols and aryl bromides. More notably, we have developed a general strategy to ‘switch on’ important yet elusive organometallic mechanisms via oxidation state modulations using only weak light and single-electron-transfer catalysts

Metallaphotoredox-catalysed <i>sp</i>³–<i>sp</i>³ cross-coupling of carboxylic acids with alkyl halides

In the past 50 years, cross-coupling reactions mediated by transition metals have changed the way in which complex organic molecules are synthesized. The predictable and chemoselective nature of these transformations has led to their widespread adoption across many areas of chemical research1. However, the construction of a bond between two sp3-hybridized carbon atoms, a fundamental unit of organic chemistry, remains an important yet elusive objective for engineering cross-coupling reactions2. In comparison to related procedures with sp2-hybridized species, the development of methods for sp3–sp3 bond formation via transition metal catalysis has been hampered historically by deleterious side-reactions, such as β-hydride elimination with palladium catalysis or the reluctance of alkyl halides to undergo oxidative addition3,4. To address this issue, nickel-catalysed cross-coupling processes can be used to form sp3–sp3 bonds that utilize organometallic nucleophiles and alkyl electrophiles5,6,7. In particular, the coupling of alkyl halides with pre-generated organozinc8,9, Grignard10 and organoborane11 species has been used to furnish diverse molecular structures. However, the manipulations required to produce these activated structures is inefficient, leading to poor step- and atom-economies. Moreover, the operational difficulties associated with making and using these reactive coupling partners, and preserving them through a synthetic sequence, has hindered their widespread adoption. A generically useful sp3–sp3 coupling technology that uses bench-stable, native organic functional groups, without the need for pre-functionalization or substrate derivatization, would therefore be valuable. Here we demonstrate that the synergistic merger of photoredox and nickel catalysis enables the direct formation of sp3–sp3 bonds using only simple carboxylic acids and alkyl halides as the nucleophilic and electrophilic coupling partners, respectively. This metallaphotoredox protocol is suitable for many primary and secondary carboxylic acids. The merit of this coupling strategy is illustrated by the synthesis of the pharmaceutical tirofiban in four steps from commercially available starting materials