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A tandem insertion of aliphatic nitriles and unactivated alkenes to the N-H bond of secondary aliphatic amines catalyzed by simple trialkyl rare-earth metal complexes was disclosed. This reaction provides a highly atom-economic and stereoselective way to a range of cyclic amidines under mild reaction conditions.

The Lewis acid-catalyzed annulations between anthranils and γ-butyrolactone-fused donor-acceptor cyclopropanes have been developed. Depending on the anthranils used, such annulations proceeded in a chemodivergent way to produce either bridged cyclic products via [4 + 3] annulation or γ-butyrolactone-fused tetrahydroquinoline products via a cascade process in moderate to high yields. A probable mechanism for the two reaction pathways has been proposed. The reaction could be performed on a gram-scale, and the products could be elaborated to other useful cyclic structures bearing multiple contiguous stereogenic centers.

A new Michael addition/intramolecular alkylation sequence of ( Z)-3-(2-bromo-3-arylacryloyl)oxazolidin-2-ones and malonates was developed. By a simple switch of the reaction conditions including the base promoter, solvent, and reaction temperature, both of the cis- and trans-isomers of a series of oxazolidinone-containing 2,3-disubstituted cyclopropane-1,1-diesters could be obtained in good-to-excellent yields and with an excellent diastereoselectivity. The utility of the cyclopropane products was demonstrated in the diastereoselective syntheses of (±)-urinaligran and a stereoisomer of (±)-virgatusin involving the AlCl 3 -promoted [3+2] annulation with veraldehyde or piperonal as the key step.

The [3 + 2] annulations of γ-butyrolactone fused donor-acceptor (D-A) cyclopropanes with aromatic isothiocyanates and dialkyl carbodiimides promoted by FeCl 3 is reported. A series of bicyclic/polycyclic γ-butyrolactone fused thioimidates and γ-butyrolactone fused amidines containing four contiguous stereogenic centers were obtained in excellent yields as single stereoisomers.

A series of cis-2,3-disubstituted cyclopropane 1,1-diesters were examined in the AlCl3-promoted [3 + 2]-annulations with aldehydes. In this reaction, these cis-cyclopropanes displayed reactivities starkly different from their trans counterparts in terms of the high chemical yields (up to 98%) and provided the desired annulation products with excellent diastereomeric purity. This protocol provides a facile and highly stereoselective way to construct synthetically useful pentasubstituted tetrahydrofurans not easily accessible using other methods.

The AlCl(3)-catalyzed [3 + 2] cycloaddition reaction of diethyl trans-2,3-disubstituted cyclopropane-1,1-dicarboxylates and aromatic aldehydes was carried out under mild conditions to provide a series of diethyl 2,5-diaryl-4-benzoyltetrahydrofuran-3,3-dicarboxylates in moderate to good yields with excellent diastereoselectivities. While common 2,5-cis products were obtained with electron-neutral or electron-poor aryl aldehydes, the much less common 2,5-trans products were obtained in excellent diastereoselectivities when electron-rich aryl aldehydes were used. The relative configurations of those typical products were confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analyses.

It is demonstrated that the cyclopentadienyl-free simple lanthanide amides [(Me(3)Si)(2)N](3)Ln(mu-Cl)Li(THF)(3)(Ln = La, Sm, Eu, Y, Yb) and Ln[N(SiMe(3))(2)]3 (Ln = Y, Yb) are highly efficient catalysts for the guanylation of both aromatic and secondary amines with a high activity under mild conditions. It is found that these catalysts are compatible with a wide range of solvents and substrates.

Aromatic aldehydes can be directly converted to the corresponding amides and alcohols in good to excellent yields by the treatment of aromatic aldehydes with lithium amide LiN(SiMe3)2 in the presence of catalytic lanthanide chlorides LnCl3 or by the treatment of aromatic aldehydes with a stoichiometric amount of lanthanide amides [(Me3Si)2N]3Ln(mu-Cl)Li(THF)3 at ambient temperature. The effects of solvents, substitutents on the phenyl ring, and lanthanide metals on the reaction have been examined. The mechanism of the disproportionation reaction was proposed based on the experimental results.