Synlett 2020; 31(10): 925-932
DOI: 10.1055/s-0039-1690814
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© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

N-Heterocyclic Carbene-Organocatalyzed Arene Formation: Application in Atroposelective Synthesis of Polysubstituted Benzenes

Ke Xu
School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-Sen University, 135 Xingang West Road, Guangzhou 510275, P. R. China   Email: zhutshun@mail.sysu.edu.cn
,
Ziyuan Wang
,
Tingshun Zhu
School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-Sen University, 135 Xingang West Road, Guangzhou 510275, P. R. China   Email: zhutshun@mail.sysu.edu.cn
› Author Affiliations
We acknowledge financial support from the 1000-Youth Talents Program and a young-teacher research grant from Sun Yat-Sen University.
Further Information

Publication History

Received: 31 December 2019

Accepted after revision: 18 January 2020

Publication Date:
03 February 2020 (online)


Abstract

In recent decades, organocatalysis by N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) has emerged as a versatile and powerful method in organic synthesis. As a result of the power of NHC organocatalysis to produce cyclic compounds, polysubstituted benzenes, which are among the most important cyclic compounds in organic chemistry, can be synthesized efficiently and selectively. This article briefly summarizes the history of NHC organocatalysis, including recent developments in benzene-formation methods, and highlights our recent work in atroposelective arene formation by carbene-catalyzed formal [4+2] cyclo­additions. We expect that more NHC-catalyzed methods for the synthesis of asymmetric arenes will be developed in the near future, providing shortcuts to syntheses of sophisticated chiral functional molecules with polysubstituted benzene nuclei.