Professor Shih-Yuan Liu, Boston College. “Recent Advances in Azaborine Chemistry" Harvard/MIT Inorganic Chemistry Seminar.  

“Recent Advances in Azaborine Chemistry"
1) Pd/Senphos Catalyzed X-Boration of Enynes and 2) A BN-Doped Cycloparaphenylene”

BN/CC isosterism has emerged as a viable strategy to expand the structural diversity of compounds relevant to biomedical research and materials science. I will describe our recent contributions in the development of alkyne addition reactions that are enabled by 1,4-azaborine-biaryl phosphine (Senphos) supported Pd catalysts. Specifically, the site-, regio-, and diastereoselective hydroboration, cyanoboration, and carboboration of 1,3-enynes will be discussed along with a discussion of possible reaction mechanisms underlying these reactions. Furthermore, the synthesis and characterization of the first example of a BN-doped cycloparaphenylene (CPP) is described. The chemistry of CPPs and azaborine heterocycles are synergistically enriched by their combination such that new distinctive behaviors are observed that are not typical of reported CPPs and BN heterocycles.