Carter U. Brzezinski, Andrew R. LeBlanc, Madeline G. Clerici and William M. Wuest*,
{"title":"Mild Photochemical Reduction of Alkenes and Heterocycles via Thiol-Mediated Formate Activation","authors":"Carter U. Brzezinski, Andrew R. LeBlanc, Madeline G. Clerici and William M. Wuest*, ","doi":"10.1021/acs.orglett.4c01894","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p >The reduction of alkenes to their respective alkanes is one of the most important transformations in organic chemistry, given the abundance of natural and commercial olefins. Metal-catalyzed hydrogenation is the most common way to reduce alkenes; however, the use of H<sub>2</sub> gas in combination with the precious metals required for these conditions can be impractical, dangerous, and expensive. More complex substrates often require extremely high pressures of H<sub>2</sub>, further emphasizing the safety concerns associated with these hydrogenation reactions. Here we report a safe, cheap, and practical photochemical alkene reduction using a readily available organophotocatalyst, catalytic thiol, and formate. These conditions reduce a variety of di-, tri-, and tetra-substituted alkenes in good yield as well as dearomatize pharmaceutically relevant heterocycles to generate sp<sup>3</sup>-rich isosteres of benzofurans and indoles. These formal-hydrogenation conditions tolerate a broad range of functionalities that would otherwise be sensitive to typical hydrogenations and are likely to be important for industry applications.</p>","PeriodicalId":54,"journal":{"name":"Organic Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/epdf/10.1021/acs.orglett.4c01894","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Organic Letters","FirstCategoryId":"92","ListUrlMain":"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.orglett.4c01894","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, ORGANIC","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The reduction of alkenes to their respective alkanes is one of the most important transformations in organic chemistry, given the abundance of natural and commercial olefins. Metal-catalyzed hydrogenation is the most common way to reduce alkenes; however, the use of H2 gas in combination with the precious metals required for these conditions can be impractical, dangerous, and expensive. More complex substrates often require extremely high pressures of H2, further emphasizing the safety concerns associated with these hydrogenation reactions. Here we report a safe, cheap, and practical photochemical alkene reduction using a readily available organophotocatalyst, catalytic thiol, and formate. These conditions reduce a variety of di-, tri-, and tetra-substituted alkenes in good yield as well as dearomatize pharmaceutically relevant heterocycles to generate sp3-rich isosteres of benzofurans and indoles. These formal-hydrogenation conditions tolerate a broad range of functionalities that would otherwise be sensitive to typical hydrogenations and are likely to be important for industry applications.
期刊介绍:
Organic Letters invites original reports of fundamental research in all branches of the theory and practice of organic, physical organic, organometallic,medicinal, and bioorganic chemistry. Organic Letters provides rapid disclosure of the key elements of significant studies that are of interest to a large portion of the organic community. In selecting manuscripts for publication, the Editors place emphasis on the originality, quality and wide interest of the work. Authors should provide enough background information to place the new disclosure in context and to justify the rapid publication format. Back-to-back Letters will be considered. Full details should be reserved for an Article, which should appear in due course.