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Nitrogen‐containing compounds are valuable synthetic intermediates and targets in nearly every chemical industry. While methods for nitrogen‐carbon and nitrogen‐heteroatom bond formation have primarily relied on nucleophilic nitrogen atom reactivity, molecules containing nitrogen‐halogen bonds allow for electrophilic or radical reactivity modes at the nitrogen center. Despite the growing synthetic utility of nitrogen‐halogen bond‐containing compounds, selective catalytic strategies for their synthesis are largely underexplored. We recently discovered that the vanadium‐dependent haloperoxidase (VHPO) class of enzymes are a suitable biocatalyst platform for nitrogen‐halogen bond formation. Herein, we show that VHPOs perform selective halogenation of a range of substituted benzamidine hydrochlorides to produce the corresponding N’‐halobenzimidamides. This biocatalytic platform is applied to the synthesis of 1,2,4‐oxadiazoles from the corresponding N‐acylbenzamidines in high yield and with excellent chemoselectivity. Finally, the synthetic applicability of this biotechnology is demonstrated in an extension to nitrogen‐nitrogen bond formation and the chemoenzymatic synthesis of the Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug, ataluren. 

Although silane diamine copolymers have captured the attention of the catalysis community, the optimization of their synthesis and end uses have yet to be explored. In this study, a well-defined Earth-abundant metal catalyst, [(2,6-iPr2PhBDI)Mn(µ-H)]2, has been found to couple organosilanes to diamines to prepare networks that feature varied silane substitution and diamine chain lengths. By performing dehydrocoupling in the absence of solvent with 0.01 mol% catalyst loading, substrate utilisation turnover frequencies of up to 300 s-1 have been achieved at early reaction times, the highest Si–N dehydrocoupling activity ever observed. These networks have been employed as absorbents for common organic solvents, a property that had not been studied for this class of materials. By incorporating a long-chain hydrophobic linker, one network has been found to absorb 7.7× its orginal mass in THF and recycling has been demonstrated upon solvent removal. Controlling the degree of dehydrocoupling also offered an opportunity to deposit coatings from freshly-prepared silane diamine polymer solutions and monitor their integrity upon curing in air. While uniform and persistent coatings have been obtained from 1,6-hexanediamine derived polymers, the need to prepare dilute solutions that have a short shelf-life and the tackiness associated with extended dry times have been identified as potential limitations.