Substituted Benzenes: The Gu Synthesis of Rhazinal
Sisir K. Mandal of Asian Paints R&T Centre, Mumbai used (Tetrahedron Lett. 2013, 54, 530) a Ru catalyst to couple 2 with an electron-rich arene 1 to give 3. Jun-ichi Yoshida of Kyoto University (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 5000) and John F. Hartwig of the University of California, Berkeley (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 8480) also reported direct amination protocols. Tommaso Marcelli of the Politecnico di Milano and Michael J. Ingleson of the University of Manchester effected (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 474) the electrophilic borylation of the aniline 4 to give 5. The regioselectivity of Ir-catalyzed borylation (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 7572; Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 140) is complementary to the electrophilic process. Professor Hartwig carried (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 933) the borylated product from 6 onto Ni-mediated coupling to give the alkylated product 7. Weiping Su of the Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter devised (Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 1718) an intriguing Pd-mediated oxidative coupling of nitroethane 9 with 8 to give 10. The coupling is apparently not proceeding via nitroethylene. Peiming Gu of Ningxia University developed (Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 1124) an azide-based cleavage that converted the aldehyde 11 into the formamide 13. Zhong-Quan Liu of Lanzhou University showed (Tetrahedron Lett. 2013, 54, 3079) that an aromatic carboxylic acid 14 could be oxidatively decarboxylated to the chloride 15. Gérard Cahiez of the Université Paris 13 found (Adv. Synth. Catal. 2013, 355, 790) mild Cu-catalyzed conditions for the reductive decarboxylation of aromatic carboxylic acids, and Debabrata Maiti of the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai found (Chem. Commun. 2013, 49, 252) Pd-mediated conditions for the dehydroxymethylation of benzyl alcohols (neither illustrated). Pravin R. Likhar of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology prepared (Adv. Synth. Catal. 2013, 355, 751) a Cu catalyst that effected Castro-Stephens coupling of 16 with 17 at room temperature. Arturo Orellana of York University (Chem. Commun. 2013, 49, 5420) and Patrick J. Walsh of the University of Pennsylvania (Org. Lett. 2013, 15, 2298) showed that a cyclopropanol 20 can couple with an aryl halide 19 to give 21.