New strategies for asymmetric photocatalysis: asymmetric organocatalytic/photoredox relay catalysis for efficient synthesis of polycyclic compounds containing vicinal amino alcohols

An asymmetric catalytic strategy in photocatalysis utilizing a chirality-induced approach through an organocatalytic/photoredox relay catalysis strategy is successfully achieved for the rapid construction of polycyclic compounds containing vicinal amino alcohols in a one-pot protocol. This methodology facilitates the efficient synthesis of diverse substituted polycyclic tetrahydroquinoline and benzofuran-derived vicinal amino alcohols, each containing five consecutive chiral centers, with high yields,excellent diastereoselectivities and enantioselectivities(up to 95% yield, >20:1 dr and 98% ee), under mild reaction conditions driven by sequential bifunctional squaramide organocatalyst-catalyzed [4+2] annulation and photocatalyst-catalyzed ketyl radical addition cyclization reaction process. Furthermore, investigations into the stereoselectivity mechanism and high-resolution mass spectrometry(HRMS) experiments on free radical trapping have provided evidence for elucidating the detailed mechanism of chirality-induced processes and chiral intermediate conversions in this procedure.

Enantioselective intermolecular[2+2]photocycloadditions of vinylazaarenes with triplet-state electron-deficient olefins

The development of catalytic asymmetric radical reactions is an attractive but formidable task.The high reactivity of radicals enables the use of readily accessible feedstocks and mild reaction conditions,but it leads to substantial difficulty for chiral catalysts to provide sufficient enantiocontrol.Moreover,a racemic background process is often inevitable,further deteriorating enantioselectivity.In this regard,an effective protocol has been established for enantioselective intermolecular[2+2]photocycloadditions to overcome the challenges,which is capitalising on the ground-state preassociations of chiral catalysts with photoactivated substrates.Here,we report the viability of substrate-differentiating synergistic catalysis for this important reaction.In this new platform,energy transfer occurs between DPZ as a photosensitizer and enones or(E)-2-substituted vinylazaarenes for producing triplet-state species,and chiral phosphoric acid interacts with ground-state 2-vinylazaarenes via hydrogen bonding for subsequent enantiofacial cycloaddition.Although all active species are dispersed in the reaction system,valuable enantioenriched mono-and di-azaarene-functionalized cyclobutanes are obtained efficiently and selectively.In addition to constructing all-carbon quaternary stereocentres,flexible modulation of azaaryl groups and other substituents on the cyclobutane ring is also operative.

Nickel-Catalyzed Regiodivergent Asymmetric Cycloadditions of α,β-Unsaturated Carbonyl Compounds

Regiodivergent asymmetric cycloadditions from the same set of starting materials offer interesting opportunities for rapid construction of optically active cyclic molecules with structural diversity.However,this remains a challenging task due to the difficulty of simultaneously controlling the regio-,diastereo-,and enantioselectivity in the ring formation processes.To address this long-standing problem.