A copper-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction of guanidine nitrate with aryl iodides was used for the formation of N,N′-disubstituted guanidines to be used as potential therapeutics for strokes. A relatively inexpensive commercially available guanidine salt and a series of aryl iodides together with copper iodide and N,N-diethylsalicylamide as an efficient catalyst/ligand system provided a simple diarylation procedure.

Dihydropyran derivatives readily undergo addition to N-acyl imines in the presence of chiral phosphoric acids. This addition process yields an attractive product that is capable of a tandem oxidative−cyclization via an epoxide intermediate.

Conditions for the phosphoric acid-catalyzed highly enantioselective ring-opening of meso-aziridines with a series of functionalized aromatic thiol nucleophiles are described. The procedure utilizes commercially available aromatic thiols, a series of meso-aziridines, and a catalytic amount of VAPOL phosphoric acid to explore the substrate scope of this highly enantioselective reaction.

The first highly enantioselective catalytic method for the preparation of chiral aminalsvia the addition of imide nucleophiles to imines is reported.

The first highly enantioselective catalytic method for the preparation of chiral aminalsvia the addition of imide nucleophiles to imines is reported.