Ke Chen

TL;DR: A new Ag/Brønsted acid co-catalyzed spiroketalization of β-alkynyl ketones with para-quinone methides has been established, enabling multiple C-C and C-O bond-forming events to access densely functionalized spiro[chromane-2,1'-isochromene] derivatives with generally excellent diastereoselectivity and good yields.

TL;DR: In this article , the first highly atroposelective construction of N-N axially chiral indole scaffolds were established via a new strategy of de novo ring formation, which makes use of the organocatalytic asymmetric Paal-Knorr reaction of well-designed N-aminoindoles with 1,4-diketones, thus affording high yields for N-pyrrolylindoles.

TL;DR: A new palladium(II)-catalyzed cyclization-radical addition cascade enables the direct construction of 1,3-dimethylene-substituted isobenzofuran derivatives containing a vinyl aryl sulfone unit in good yields by treating with β-alkynyl ketones, aryL diazonium salts, and DABCO·(SO2)2.

TL;DR: The combination of AgTFA and Sc(OTf)3 enables the bimetallic synergistic catalysis of β-alkynyl ketones and o-hydroxybenzyl alcohols, allowing divergent synthesis of three classes of skeletally diverse chromene derivatives with generally good yields and high diastereoselectivity through dehydroxylated bi- and tri-cyclization cascades.

TL;DR: The combination of AgTFA and Sc(OTf)3 enables the bimetallic synergistic catalysis of β-alkynyl ketones and para-quinone methides, allowing direct synthesis of 17 examples of benzo[c]xanthenes with generally good yields through a benzannulation/1,6-addition/cyclization sequence.