Iron Catalysis in Organic Synthesis

Alan Ford,† Hugues Miel, Aoife Ring,† Catherine N. Slattery,† Anita R. Maguire,*,†,‡ and M. Anthony McKervey* †Department of Chemistry and ‡School of Pharmacy, Analytical and Biological Chemistry Research Facility, Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland Almac Discovery Ltd., David Keir Building, Stranmillis Road, Belfast BT9 5AG, United Kingdom Almac Sciences Ltd., Almac House, 20 Seagoe Industrial Estate, Craigavon BT63 5QD, United Kingdom

Modern Organic Synthesis with α-Diazocarbonyl Compounds

Catalysed X–H insertion reactions into diazo compounds (where X is any heteroatom) are a powerful yet underutilized class of transformations. The following review will explore the historical development of X–H insertion and give an up-to-date account of the metal catalysts most often employed, including an assessment of their strengths and weaknesses. Despite decades of development, recent work on enantioselective variants, as well as applying catalytic X–H insertion towards problems in chemical biology indicate that this field has ample room for innovation.

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Catalytic X–H insertion reactions based on carbenoids

Expanding nature's catalytic repertoire to include reactions important in synthetic chemistry will open new opportunities for ‘green’ chemistry and biosynthesis. We demonstrate the first enzyme-catalyzed insertion of carbenoids into N–H bonds. This type of bond disconnection, which has no counterpart in nature, can be mediated by variants of the cytochrome P450 from Bacillus megaterium. The N–H insertion reaction takes place in water, provides the desired products in 26–83% yield, forms the single addition product exclusively, and does not require slow addition of the diazo component.

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Cytochrome P450-catalyzed insertion of carbenoids into N–H bonds

In industries and academic laboratories, several late transition metal-catalyzed prerequisite reactions are widely performed during single and multistep synthesis. However, besides the desired products, these reactions lead to the generation of numerous chemical waste materials, by-products, hazardous gases, and other poisonous materials, which are discarded in the environment. This is partly responsible for the creation of global warming, resulting in climate adversities. Thus, the development of environmentally benign, cheap, easily accessible, and earth-abundant metal catalysts is desirable to minimize these issues. Certainly, iron is one of the most important metals belonging to this family. The field of iron catalysis has been explored in the last two-three decades out of its rich chemistry depending on its oxidation states and ligand cooperation. Moreover, this field has been enriched by the promising development of iron-catalyzed reactions namely, C–H bond activation, including organometallic C–H activation and C–H functionalization via outer-sphere pathway, cross-dehydrogenative couplings, insertion reactions, cross-coupling reactions, hydrogenations including hydrogen borrowing reactions, hydrosilylation and hydroboration, addition reactions and substitution reactions. Thus, herein an inclusive overview of these reaction have been well documented.

Organic synthesis with the most abundant transition metal–iron: from rust to multitasking catalysts

https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1788&context=chem_pubs

Lynnette K. Baumann

Papers

Iron Porphyrin Catalyzed N−H Insertion Reactions with Ethyl Diazoacetate

Iron Porphyrin Catalyzed N—H Insertion Reaction with Ethyl Diazoacetate.