Are Organozirconium Reagents Applicable in Current Organic Synthesis?

The search for mild, user-friendly, easily accessible, and robust organometallic reagents is an important feature of organometallic chemistry. Ideally, new methodologies employing organometallics should be developed with respect to practical applications in syntheses of target compounds. In this short review, we investigate if organozirconium reagents can fulfill these criteria. Organozirconium compounds are typically generated via in situ hydrozirconation of alkenes or alkynes with the Schwartz reagent. Alkyl and alkenylzirconium reagents have proven to be convenient in conjugate additions, allylic substitutions, cross-coupling reactions, and additions to carbonyls or imines. Furthermore, the Schwartz reagent itself is a useful reducing agent for polar functional groups.1 Introduction2 Synthesis and Generation of the Schwartz Reagent3 Structure and Properties of Cp2Zr(H)Cl4 Reactivity of Organozirconium Reagents4.1 Asymmetric Conjugate Addition4.2 Asymmetric Allylic Alkylations4.3 Desymmetrization Reactions4.4 Cross-Coupling Reactions4.5 1,2-Additions5 Conclusions

Latent (Pro)Nucleophiles in Enantioselective Lewis Base Catalyzed Allylic Substitutions

The use of latent nucleophiles, which are molecules that are not nucleophilic but can be activated to act as a nucleophile at an opportune time during the reaction, expands the scope of Lewis base catalyzed reactions. Here, we provide an overview of the concept and show examples of applications to N- and C-centered nucleophiles in allylic substitutions. N- and C-silyl compounds are superior latent (pro)nucleophiles in Lewis base catalyzed reactions with allylic fluorides in which the formation of the strong Si–F bond serves as the driving force for the reactions. The latent (pro)nucleophiles ensure high regio­selectivity in these reactions and enable enantioselective transformations of Morita–Baylis–Hillman adducts by the use of common chiral Lewis base catalysts.1 Introduction2 Substitution of MBH Carbonates3 The Concept of Latent (Pro)Nucleophiles4 Enantioselective Allylation of N-Heterocycles5 Enantioselective Phosphonyldifluoromethylation of Allylic Fluorides6 Conclusion

Metal-catalyzed regiodivergent organic reactions

This review discusses metal-catalysed regiodivergent additions, allylic substitutions, CH-activation, cross-couplings and intra- or intermolecular cyclisations.

A readily accessible and modular carbohydrate-derived thioether/selenoether-phosphite ligand library for Pd-catalyzed asymmetric allylic substitutions

A series of modular carbohydrate-derived P,S/Se-ligands have been successfully applied to Pd-AAS of a range of hindered and unhindered substrates.