Synlett 2019; 30(17): 1929-1934
DOI: 10.1055/s-0037-1611874
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© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Sustainable Carbene Transfer Reactions with Iron and Light

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RWTH Aachen University, Institute of Organic Chemistry, Landoltweg 1, D-52074 Aachen, Germany   Email: rene.koenigs@rwth-aachen.de
› Author Affiliations
R.M.K. gratefully acknowledges the Dean’s Seed Fund of RWTH Aachen University. Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – project no. 408033718.
Further Information

Publication History

Received: 20 May 2019

Accepted after revision: 04 June 2019

Publication Date:
26 June 2019 (online)


Abstract

Carbenes are versatile, highly reactive intermediates with great importance in chemistry. We recently reported on our findings on safe and scalable applications of hazardous diazoacetonitrile using cheap and commercially available iron catalysts in efficient carbene transfer reactions, ranging from cyclopropanation towards C–H functionalization reactions for the synthesis of biologically important building blocks. More lately, we uncovered the reactivity of diazoalkanes under photochemical conditions using visible light and were able to demonstrate a variety of different, metal-free carbene transfer reactions, which now open up new sustainable ways for the construction of small functional molecules.

1 Introduction

2 Iron-Catalyzed Carbene Transfer Reactions of Diazoacetonitrile

3 Metal-free Carbene Transfer Reaction with Visible Light

4 Summary