Reactive precursors

Bicyclobutanes are among the most highly strained organic compounds and are intriguing building blocks in organic synthesis. This review provides an overview of the recent developments in bicyclobutane synthesis, their synthetic utility and their modes of reactivity.

Sulfonyl fluorides have potential application in chemical biology, materials science, and drug discovery, but their preparation remains challenging. Here, the authors report an air-stable fluorosulfonylating reagent that enables the radical fluorosulfonylation, hydrofluorosulfonylation and migratory SO₂F-difunctionalization of unsaturated hydrocarbons to construct a variety of sulfonyl fluoride compounds.

Precursors for the release of phosphorus mononitride in solution under mild conditions have remained elusive. Now, an explosive anthracene-stabilized azidophosphine has shown PN transfer reactivity in the synthesis of an Fe–NP complex. The PN ligand is N-bonded, as the Fe–N interaction shows significant covalent character and a less unfavourable Pauli repulsion than its Fe–P counterpart.

Sulfonyl fluorides are compounds with potential application in chemical biology and drug discovery, but their preparation can be challenging. Here, the authors present a type of bench-stable fluorosulfonyl radical reagents that enable radical fluorosulfonylation reactions via photoredox catalysis.

White phosphorus (P₄) is selectively transformed by oxidative onioation into salts of P₁-transfer reagents that feature reactive P–N bonds. These P₁ compounds can be used in P–N, P–O and P–C bond-forming reactions to form value-added phosphorus chemicals, representing a viable alternative to the most relevant, yet problematic, P(III) precursor, namely PCl₃.

Insertion of light elements in intermetallics has been explored to synthesize functional materials. Here the authors report topotactic intercalation of fluorine atoms into intermetallics using a perfluorocarbon reactant with covalent C-F bonds to obtain quantum materials.