The majority of reactions currently performed in the chemical industry take place in organic solvents, compounds that are generally derived from petrochemicals. To promote chemical processes in water, we examined the use of synthetic, deep water-soluble cavitands in the Staudinger reduction of long-chain aliphatic diazides (C₈, C₁₀, and C₁₂). The diazide substrates are taken up by the cavitand in D₂O in folded, dynamic conformations. The reduction of one azide group to an amine gives a complex in which the substrate is fixed in an unsymmetrical conformation, with the amine terminal exposed and the azide terminal deep and inaccessible within the cavitand. Accordingly, the reduction of the second azide group is inhibited, even with excess phosphine, and good yields of the monofunctionalized products are obtained. In contrast, the reduction of the free diazides in bulk solution yields diamine products.

The majority of reactions currently performed in the chemical industry take place in organic solvents, compounds that are generally derived from petrochemicals. To promote chemical processes in water, we examined the use of synthetic, deep water-soluble cavitands in the Staudinger reduction of long-chain aliphatic diazides (C₈, C₁₀, and C₁₂). The diazide substrates are taken up by the cavitand in D₂O in folded, dynamic conformations. The reduction of one azide group to an amine gives a complex in which the substrate is fixed in an unsymmetrical conformation, with the amine terminal exposed and the azide terminal deep and inaccessible within the cavitand. Accordingly, the reduction of the second azide group is inhibited, even with excess phosphine, and good yields of the monofunctionalized products are obtained. In contrast, the reduction of the free diazides in bulk solution yields diamine products.

Electrochemical reactions are shown to be effective for the CH functionalization of a number of heterocyclic substrates that are recalcitrant to conventional peroxide radical initiation conditions. Monitoring reaction progress under electrochemical conditions provides mechanistic insight into the CH functionalization of a series of heterocycles of interest in medicinal chemistry.

An unusual solvent-induced inversion of the sense of enantioselectivity observed in the α-selenylation of aldehydes catalyzed by a diphenylprolinol silyl ether catalyst is correlated to the presence of intermediates formed subsequent to the highly selective CSe bond-forming step in the catalytic cycle. This work provides support for a mechanistic concept for enamine catalysis and includes a general role for “downstream intermediates” in selectivity outcomes in organocatalysis.

Solution-phase racemization drives the evolution of single chirality in the solid phase by the “chiral amnesia” process first described by Viedma. The current investigations lay the basis for a better understanding of the mechanism of the solid-phase deracemization by uncoupling the chemical rate processes associated with the interconversion of enantiomers in the solution phase from the physical processes associated with solution–solid phase transfer via dissolution and reaccretion of molecules onto crystals. In addition, the enantiomer concentration profiles presented in this work, together with an analytical treatment of the racemization process in the presence of excess enantiopure solid, unequivocally reconfirm the validity of the Meyerhoffer double solubility rule for systems under solution racemization conditions.