Halogen bond-catalyzed imine formation and tandem reactions

Abstract

The development of halogen bond (XB) catalysis was presented. In recent decades, attempts have been successfully made to design and synthesize diverse XB donors to catalyze various reactions, including halogen bond donor promoted C=N, C-X and C=O activations. Apart from these three activating manners, XB also has been successfully applied for a series of other challenging reaction (Chapter 1). A bidentate XB donor was applied in one-pot direct reductive amination. This methodology offered imine formation and subsequent reductive amination in one step. The mechanism studied by NMR pointed out that the imine formation is faster than the subsequent reaction in this kind of XB catalysis manner. Another highlight is that the bidentate XB donor is confirmed much more efficient than its monodentate analogue (Chapter 2). The scope of C=N activation was widened by the bidentate XB donor. Aza-DA reactions and Povarov reactions were catalyzed by the XB donor, in which various products could be formed by building three simple blocks in one-pot for synthesizing a wide range of compounds. (Chapter 3).