Cocktail of catalysts is now available for organocatalysis

This work reveals ambident nucleophilic reactivity of imidazolium cations towards carbonyl compounds at the C2 or C4 carbene centers depending on the steric properties of the substrates and reaction conditions. Such an adaptive behavior indicates the dynamic nature of organocatalysis proceeding via a covalent interaction of imidazolium carbenes with carbonyl substrates and can be explained by generation of the H?bonded ditopic carbanionic carbenes.

Reference: Chem. Eur. J., 2020, ASAP

DOI: 10.1002/chem.201905704

On-line version: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/chem.201905704