The potassium permanganate oxidation of methylated humic acid from a Spanish lignite yielded mainly straight-chain alkanes together with a mixture of fatty acids, methyl straight-chain alkyl ketones, aliphatic dicarboxylic, phenolic and benzenecarboxylic acids. Furthermore, some unusual compounds such as dehydroabietic and bromohydroxybenzoic acids and bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate were also ident...

A catalytic method for the direct cross-coupling of alkenyllithium reagents with aryl and alkenyl halides is described. The use of a catalyst comprising Pd2(dba)3/XPhos allows for the stereoselective preparation of a wide variety of substituted alkenes in high yields under mild conditions. In addition (1-ethoxyvinyl)lithium can be efficiently converted into substituted vinyl ethers which, after...

A new, simplified method for the synthesis of dimethyl aryl acylsulfonium salts has been developed. A series of dimethyl aryl acylsulfonium bromides were prepared by the reaction of aryl methyl ketones with hydrobromic acid and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO). This sulfonium salt confirms that bromine production and the bromination reaction take place in the DMSO-HBr oxidation system. What's more, it ...

A catalytic method for the direct cross-coupling of alkenyllithium reagents with aryl and alkenyl halides is described. The use of a catalyst comprising Pd2(dba)3/XPhos allows for the stereoselective preparation of a wide variety of substituted alkenes in high yields under mild conditions. In addition (1-ethoxyvinyl) lithium can be efficiently converted into substituted vinyl ethers which, afte...

A simple change of ligand and solvent allows controlled, effective switching between cyclization-carbonylation and cyclization-carbonylation-cyclization-coupling (CCC-coupling) reactions of 2-alkynylanilines catalyzed by palladium(II). The use of a [Pd(tfa)2(box)] catalyst in iPrOH afforded symmetrical ketones bearing two indoles in good yields; replacing the catalyst and solvent with Pd(tfa)2 ...

Indoles are converted into α-carbolines in four steps by acylation at C-3, Boc-protection, olefination of the resulting 3-indolyl aldehydes or ketones to give N-Boc-3-indolyl alkenyl oxime O-methyl ethers, which upon heating to 240 °C under microwave irradiation undergo loss of the Boc-group, and 6π-electrocyclization to α-carbolines, following aromatization by loss of methanol (11 examples, 30...

An efficient method for the asymmetric synthesis of β-trifluoromethylated β-amino ketones via addition of ketone-derivative enolates to trifluoromethylated sulfinylimine has been developed, with good chemical yields and excellent diastereoselectivities. This practical method was also proved to be suitable for large-scale preparation.