A (2R,4S)-trans-disubstituted pyrrolidine ring system was constructed by employing iodine-mediated oxidative cyclization of (1R)-N-[1-(4-bromophenyl)-3-butenyl]acetamide 3 as a key step. The resulting diastereomeric mixture of (2R)-2-aryl-4-acetoxypyrrolidine 4 was stereoselectively converted to the side-chain of a novel ultrabroad-spectrum carbapenem 1, via (2R,4R)-2-aryl-4-hydroxypyrrolidine 7.

A new, high yielding method for the preparation of vasicinone (7) is described. Reaction of 2-nitrobenzoic acid with N, N¢-carbonyldiimidazole followed by 2-pyrrolidinone gave 1-(2-nitrobenzoyl)pyrrolidine-2-one (3). Reduction of the latter with 10% Pd-C afforded deoxyvasicinone (4). Reaction of deoxyvasicinone (4) with bromine yielded monobromo-deoxyvasicinone (5). Exchange of bro...

Disclosed herein are structures designed to incorporate pyrrolidine, which is a privileged organocatalyst structure, and bipyridine, among the most widely used metal ligands. Robust scalable synthetic routes five such compounds have been established. These novel may be useful in metal-organic cooperative catalyzed transformations, or as organocatalysts