A bifunctional amine/squaramide catalyst promoted direct aldol addition of an hydantoin surrogate to pyridine 2-carbaldehyde N-oxides to afford adducts bearing two vicinal tertiary/quaternary carbons in high diastereo- and enantioselectivity (d.r. up to >20:1; ee up to 98 %) is reported. Acid hydrolysis of adducts followed by reduction of the N-oxide group yields enantiopure carbinol-tethered quaternary hydantoin-azaarene conjugates with densely functionalized skeletons. DFT studies of the potential energy surface (B3LYP/6-31+G(d)+CPCM (dichloromethane)) of the reaction correlate the activity of different catalysts and support an intramolecular hydrogen-bond-assisted activation of the squaramide moiety in the transition state of the catalytic reaction.

The combination of anline and tetrafluoroboric acid diethyl etherate (2.5 mol% and 5 mol%, respectively) significantly accelerates the formation of sulfinyl imines in dichloromethane and isopropylacetate at room temperature compared to previous procedures. A DFT and NMR spectroscopic study shows that the anilinium tetrafluoroborate complex is solvated by sulfinamide molecules in the initial state and that the rate-limiting step of the reaction is the addition of the sulfinamide molecule to the protonated aniline-based imine. In addition, the catalytic system was also utilised in a one-pot, two step reaction, where the in situ formed sulfinyl imine was arylated in a rhodium catalysed reaction with high diastereoselectivity.

A mild acid-catalysed method is reported for the formation of sulfinyl imines from tert-butanesulfinamide and aromatic or aliphatic aldehydes using tetrafluoroboric acid diethyletherate (10 mol%) in dichloromethane. Reactions were performed at room temperature and gave the corresponding sulfinyl imines in excellent yield after 2 h. A DFT study was performed and a mechanism for the reaction is postulated. 

Green chemistry and sustainable development have become increasingly important topics for the education of future chemists. The cross-disciplinary nature of green chemistry and sustainable development often means these subjects are taught in conjunction with other subjects, such as organic chemistry and chemical engineering. Herein, a straightforward and efficient approach for vertical integration of green chemistry concepts within existing undergraduate organic chemistry courses is shown. The gradual self-evaluation, "greenification", and reassessment of an organic chemistry course at KTH Royal Institute of Technology from 2013 to 2017 is described, with particular focus on the laboratory course and a novel green chemistry project designed to promote sustainability thinking and reasoning. The laboratory project, which can also be conducted as an independent organic chemistry laboratory exercise, required students to critically evaluate variations of the same Pechmann condensation experiment according to the twelve principles of green chemistry. The course evaluation shows that, after the modifications, students feel more comfortable with the topics "green chemistry" and "sustainability" and consider these topics more important for their future careers. Furthermore, the ability of students to discuss and critically evaluate green chemistry parameters improved considerably as determined from the laboratory project reports.

A Ni-PY5 [PY5 = 2,6-bis(1,1-bis(2-pyridyl)ethyl)pyridine)] complex has been found to act as an electrocatalyst for oxidizing water to dioxygen in aqueous phosphate buffer solutions. The rate of water oxidation catalyzed by the Ni-PY5 is remarkably enhanced by the proton acceptor base HPO₄²⁻, with rate constant of 1820 M⁻¹ s⁻¹. Controlled potential bulk electrolysis with Ni-PY5 at pH 10.8 under an applied potential of 1.5 V vs. normal hydrogen electrode (NHE) resulted in dioxygen formation with a high faradaic efficiency over 90%. A detailed mechanistic study identifies the water nucleophilic attack pathway for water oxidation catalysis.

A detailed computational and kinetic analysis of the acetylation of 1-phenylethanol with acetic anhydride catalyzed by planar chiral 4-(dimethylamino) pyridine (DMAP) catalyst ( )-1 is presented. The study includes a computational investigation of the potential-energy surface including the acylation and stereoselective transition states at the DFT level of theory. Experimentally, the kinetic study shows that the reaction proceeds in a first-order manner in catalyst, whereas both substrates, acetic anhydride and 1-phenylethanol, show fractional order, which is in accordance with steady-state conditions. The fractional order depends on an equilibrium between the free catalyst and the acetylated catalyst.

The development of new approaches to obtain optically pure beta-hydroxy esters is an important area in synthetic organic chemistry since they are precursors of other high value compounds. Herein, the kinetic resolution of racemic beta-hydroxy esters using a planar-chiral DMAP derivative catalyst is presented. Following this procedure, a range of aromatic beta-hydroxy esters was obtained in excellent selectivities (up to s = 107) and high enantiomeric excess (up to 99% ee). Furthermore, the utility of the present method was demonstrated in the synthesis of (S)-3-hydroxy-N-methyl-3-phenylpropanamide, a key intermediate for bioactive molecules such as fluoxetine, tomoxetine or nisoxetine, in its enantiomerically pure form.

Optically pure hydroxyphosphonates are widely used as derivatizable compounds that can be incorporated into a variety of synthetic strategies for the preparation of other high value organic products. A non-enzymatic kinetic resolution procedure to obtain chiral 2-hydroxy-2-arylethylphosphonates from the easily available racemic counterparts is described. A range of 2-hydroxy-2-arylethylphosphonates was efficiently resolved employing a planar-chiral DMAP derived catalyst with good selectivities (up to S=68). The chiral hydroxyphosphonates were isolated in good yields and high enantiomeric excess (>94% ee).