Stefano Nicolai

In the last decades, hypervalent iodine reagents have raised from chemical curiosities to mainstream reagents in organic synthesis. The use of benziodoxole-derived reagents has been especially successful in oxidation methods, whereas non-cyclic iodinanes have been used both for oxidation and atom-transfer reactions. On the other hand, the exceptional properties of benziodoxole reagents for atom-transfer reactions have only started to attract the attention of the synthetic community more recently. In this review, progress in the use of these compounds for C-X and C-C bond formations will be presented. In particular, recent breakthroughs in trifluoromethylation and alkynylation reactions have been realized since 2006 based on benziodoxole-derived reagents and these results are the main focus of this article.

Sweet cyclizations: The synthesis of pyrrolizidines and indolizidines has been achieved. Olefins were subjected to an intramolecular palladium-catalyzed aminoalkynylation with the hypervalent iodine reagent TIPS-EBX. After removal of the protecting group, a two-step cyclization sequence and subsequent reduction led to the natural product (±)-trachelanthamidine (see scheme; TIPS-EBX=triisopropylsilyl ethynylbenziodoxolone).

oxidative ring opening of cyclic alkylketone oxime ethers. The redox properties of the dyes were determined by both cyclic voltammetry and computation and covered an existing gap in the oxidation potential of photoredox organocatalysts.

The first example of intramolecular oxyalkynylation of nonactivated alkenes using oxidative Pd chemistry is reported. Both phenol and aromatic or aliphatic acid derivatives could be used under operator-friendly conditions (room temperature, technical solvents, under air). The discovery of the superiority of benziodoxolone-derived hypervalent iodine reagent 3d as an alkyne transfer reagent further expands the rapidly increasing utility of hypervalent iodine reagents in catalysis and is expected to have important implications for other similar processes.

Azides are building blocks of increasing importance in synthetic chemistry, chemical biology, and materials science. Azidobenziodoxolone (ABX, Zhdankin reagent) is a valuable azide source, but its safety profile has not been thoroughly established. Herein, we report a safety study of ABX, which shows its hazardous nature. We introduce two derivatives, tBu-ABX and ABZ (azidobenziodazolone), with a better safety profile, and use them in established photoredox- and metal-mediated azidations, and in a new ring-expansion of silylated cyclobutanols to give azidated cyclopentanones.