Breaking The Monotony: Cobalt and Maleimide as a New Entrant to the Catellani Reaction

A catalytic system was discovered for the intramolecular C-H amidation of N-phenoxy acetamide derivatives. For the first time, a cobalt catalyst was employed for the Catellani reaction. Additionally, a monocyclic olefin, maleimide, was used as a transient mediator in place of bicyclic norbornenes. Maleimide promotes a Co(III) intermediate to undergo oxidative addition into the O–N bond to form a Co(V) nitrene species and subsequently directs nitrene addition to the ortho position. A plausible mechanism for the transformation is proposed, supported by experimental and density functional theory (DFT) computational studies. Further, the synthetic utility of this methodology was demonstrated via the ortho-amidation of estrone.

Decoding key transient inter-catalyst interactions in a metallaphotoredox-catalysed cross-electrophile coupling reaction

Metallaphotoredox chemistry has recently witnessed a renaissance through the use of abundant first-row transition metals combined with suitable photocatalysts. The intricate details arising from the combination of two (or more) catalytic components during the reaction and specially the inter-catalyst interactions remain poorly understood. As a representative example of a catalytic process featuring such intricacies, we here present a meticulous study of the mechanism of a cobalt-organophotoredox catalysed allylation of aldehydes. Importantly, the commonly proposed elementary steps in reductive metallaphotoredox chemistry are more complex than previously assumed. After initial reductive quenching, a transient charge-transfer complex forms that interacts with both the transition-metal catalyst, as well as the catalytic base. Surprisingly, the former interaction leads to deactivation due to induced charge recombination, while the latter promotes deprotonation of the electron donor, which is a crucial step in order to promote productive catalysis, but is often neglected. Due to the low efficiency of this process, the overall catalytic reaction is photon-limited and the cobalt catalyst remains in a dual resting state awaiting photoinduced reduction. These new insights are of general importance to the synthetic community, as photoredox chemistry has become a powerful tool used in the creation of elusive compounds through carbon-carbon bond formations. Understanding the underlying factors that determine the efficiency of such reactions provides a conceptually stronger reactivity paradigm to empower future approaches to synthetic challenges that rely on dual metallaphotoredox catalysis.

Cobalt Supported on Activated Biochar as Catalyst for Green Diesel Production

Green Diesel (diesel-like hydrocarbon) can be produced from biomass resources that contain fatty acids, such as palm fruit, palm kernel, and soybean, through deoxygenation reaction. In this study, the catalytic activity of cobalt catalyst supported on activated biochar in deoxygenation of fatty acid (stearic acid) is investigated. Stearic acid is used as a model compound of vegetable oil. The obtained results show cobalt supported on activated biochar exhibited higher catalytic activity compared to cobalt supported on unactivated biochar.