The “ex-cell” approach to organic electrosynthesis has enabled important progression be made in numerous systems. Separating out the electrochemical step from subsequent chemical means that substrate scopes can expanded and a broader scope of reagents are more easily prepared. Moieties included otherwise readily undergo single-electron transfer redox events at electrode surface. We detail sever...

The selective functionalization of peptides containing only natural amino acids is important for the modification of biomolecules. In particular, the installation of an alkyne as a useful handle for bioconjugation is highly attractive, but the use of a carbon linker is usually required. Herein, we report the gold-catalyzed direct alkynylation of tryptophan in peptides using the hypervalent iodi...

Azides and nitriles are important building blocks for the synthesis of nitrogen-containing bioactive compounds. The first example of enantioselective palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative allylation of α-azido and cyano β-ketoesters is reported. Indanone derivatives were obtained in 50-88% yield/77-97% ee and 46-98% yield/78-93% ee for azide and nitrile substituents, respectively. The required st...