•Three novel branched fluorinated surfactants were synthesized.•The approach for the preparation of the title compounds was easy to achieve.•FCS has the ability to reduce the surface tension of water to below 20 mN/m.•FAS has excellent efficiency, its cmc value is about 1.04 × 10−4 mol/L at 298 K.•All the surfactants’ surface activities are better than that of C7F15COONa.Fluorinated surfactants are usually composed of a perfluorinated chain and a hydrophilic group. Academic surveys have reported that straight chain fluorinated surfactants have the lowest surface tension in a relatively high concentration while the branched fluorinated surfactants show more efficient in a relatively low concentration. Introducing branch is one of effective strategies for synthesis of non-bioaccumulable fluorinated surfactants.Three novel branched fluorinated surfactants were designed and prepared through a five-step route using perfluoro-2-methyl-2-pentene as starting material. The surface activities of them were investigated and found that they exhibited excellent surface activities. FCS can reduce the surface tension of water to below 20 mN/m, and the cmc value of FAS in water is about 1.04 × 10−4 mol/L at 298 K. All the values of surface properties of FCS, FGS and FAS are lower than that of sodium perfluorooctanoate.Three novel branched fluorinated surfactants were designed and prepared through a five-step route using perfluoro-2-methyl-2-pentene as starting material. FCS can reduce the surface tension of water to below 20 mN/m and the cmc value of FAS in water is about 1.04 × 10−4 mol/L at 298 K. All the values of surface properties of FCS, FGS and FAS are lower than that of sodium perfluorooctanoate.

This minireview describes the strategies for synthesis of fluorinated surfactants potentially non-bioaccumulable. Various strategies have been focused on (I) reducing the length of the perfluorocarbon chain, (II) introducing hetero atoms into the fluorocarbon chain, (III) introducing branch (herein and after branch means the fluoro-carbon chain section is not straight). In most cases, the surface tensions versus the surfactant concentrations have been assessed. These above strategies led to various highly fluorinated (perfluorinated or not perfluorinated) surfactants whose chemical changes enabled to obtain novel alternatives to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS).This minireview describes the strategies for synthesis of fluorinated surfactants potentially non-bioaccumulable.

Copper-catalyzed asymmetric conjugate addition of diethylzinc to chalcones could be realized by using [2.2]paracyclophane-derived monodentate phosphoramidite ligands. The excellent yield and enantioselectivity (up to 98% yield and 95% enantiomeric excess) could be realized with low catalyst loading of 1.0 mol % and low ligand loading of 1.2%.

Silver NHC catalysts have been developed for the selective oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes or carboxylic acids in the presence of BnMe3NOH or KOH under dry air. The aerobic oxidation conditions are mild, and the yield is excellent. Further tandem catalysis enables the one-pot synthesis of imines in excellent yield. Only 0.1 mol % of the catalyst is required.

A concise and efficient formal synthesis of (−)-hamigeran B is reported. The critical intermediate was synthesized from 3-methoxy-5-methylphenyl trifluoromethanesulfonate with an 11-steps 7.2% total yield route. The chiral quaternary carbon was efficiently and steroselectively constructed through an intermolecular Pauson–Khand reaction and a Claisen rearrangement reaction with >99% ee; the cyclohexane B was then closed through an aldehyde Friedel–Crafts cyclization. Lastly, the isopropenyl group of ring C was introduced through a Suzuki coupling reaction.

Co2(CO)8 was found to be effective for cycloisomerization reaction of arylene 1,7-enynes to form 2,3-dihydroindene derivatives, and a catalytic version assisted by different Lewis base ligands was also studied.

A stereocontrolled strategy toward the synthesis of nagelamide K has been developed. The dimeric imidazole acrylate, diimidazolidenesuccinate, was constructed as a synthetic precursor by a Ni-catalyzed coupling reaction; the microwave-promoted intramolecular aza-Michael addition afforded the imidazo[1,5-a]pyridine core structure of nagelamide K in high stereoselectivity. A detaurine–dediamino analogue of nagelamide K has been prepared.

We report a paracyclophane N–Me thioamide chiral reagent for the asymmetric thio-Claisen rearrangement with high diasteroselectivity. Comparisons between candidate chiral reagent N-phenyl-N-([2.2]paracyclophan-4-yl)amide, N-methyl amide, N-phenyl thioamide, and N-methyl thioamide are made both by experiment and theoretical calculations to clarify the principle behind the high diasteroselectivity. Dynamic 1H NMR phenomenon tested by varying temperature (VT) experiments has proved that N–Ph amides have triple splitting peaks, while N–Ph thioamide would reduce the number to two, further substituting the Ph to Me made dynamic phenomenon disappear. So the side chain is thought to be the most rigid in N–Me thioamide, which accounts for a structure prerequisite favoring high efficient chirality transfer. This is confirmed by theoretical calculation: remarkable energy difference exists between the Re and Si faces of the chiral molecule. To further clarify the possible pathways for thio-Claisen rearrangement, theoretical prediction is adopted. The result implies that the cisoid pathways will dominate the process. Further experiment confirmed this: with N–Me thioamide, the asymmetrical reaction affords γ-unsaturated thioamides in good yields and high diastereoselectivities up to 98%. After removing the thioamide auxiliaries under hydrolysis conditions, product β,γ-substituted chiral alcohols reached high enantiopurity of 98% ee.