We report the use of a cyclic carbodiphosphorane catalyst for ketone and imine hydroboration reactions. Ketone reactions are particularly rapid, typically reaching completion within 15 min using 1 mol % loading at 25 °C. To our knowledge, this represents first as an organocatalyst. The exhibited superior catalytic activity in comparison to other neutral carbon nucleophiles tested, including N-h...

Organocatalyst trityl chloride (Ph3CCl), by in situ formation of trityl carbocation with inherent instability, efficiently catalyzes the condensation of dimedone (5,5-dimethyl-1,3-cyclohexanedione) (2 equiv.) with arylaldehydes (1 equiv.) under solvent-free conditions to afford 9-aryl-1,8-dioxo-octahydroxanthenes in high to excellent yields and in relatively short reaction times. Formation of t...

Cinchona alkaloid-derived organocatalysts are widely employed in various asymmetric transformations, yielding products with high enantiopurity. In this respect, a bifunctional quinine-derived sulfonamide organocatalyst was developed to catalyze the sulfa-Michael reaction of naphthalene-1-thiol trans -chalcone derivatives. The target adducts were obtained up 96% ee under mild conditions and low ...

A catalytic enantioselective vinylogous domino reaction has been achieved from ketone-derived benzylidene Meldrum's acid and ?-ketolactones to provide spirolactone dihydropyranones with more than 99% ee. An Auto Tandem Catalysis (ATC) process resulting dual complementary role of (DHQ)2PHAL organocatalyst resulted in a sequence involving an asymmetric formal (4+2) cycloaddition the subsequent ki...

The benzoannulation of the most common families of aromatic NHCs, imidazol-2-ylidenes and 1,2,4-triazol-3-ylidenes, results in heterobicyclic imidazo[1,5-a]pyridin-3-ylidenes ('s) and [1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]pyridin-3-ylidenes ('s), characterized by a bridged N atom. These are versatile platforms that offer multiple possibilities for the modulation of the steric and electronic properties of the c...

We report the first asymmetric sulfa-Michael addition (SMA) reactions using a chiralN-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) as a non-covalent organocatalyst. We demonstrate that a triazolium salt derived NHC functions as an excellent Brønsted base to promote enantioselective carbon–sulfur bond formation. The reaction is applicable to a wide range of thiols and electrophilic olefins. Notably, quaternary ch...

Ab initio calculations were carried out for a benzyl-substituted iminium cation derived from (E)-crotonaldehyde and a chiral imidazolidinone that was developed as an organocatalyst by MacMillan et al. At the MP2 level of theory it is predicted that the phenyl group is close to the iminium moiety in the most stable conformer, suggesting that the cation-π interaction contributes to the stabilizat...

Here we describe our studies on solvent-dependent enantiodivergent Mannich-type reactions utilizing conformationally flexible guanidine/bisthiourea organocatalyst (S,S)-1. Our mechanistic investigations revealed that the stereo-determining steps in both the (R)- and (S)-selective Mannich-type reactions are governed by the cooperative effect of guanidine and thiourea in the inherently monomeric ...

In a previous study it was shown that the enantioselective α-fluorination of racemic α-chloroaldehydes with a chiral organocatalyst yielded the corresponding α-chloro-α-fluoroaldehydes with high enantioselectivity. It was also revealed that kinetic resolution of the starting aldehydes was involved in this asymmetric fluorination. This paper describes the determination of the absolute stereochem...