In collaboration with the labs of Profs. Guy Bertrand (UC San Diego) and Doug Grotjahn (San Diego State), we have discovered that that cyclic (amino)(alkyl)carbene (CAAC) ligands, which have been extensively developed in the Bertrand lab over the past several years, when coordinated with copper yield catalysts with unique selectivity in classical copper–boryl alkyne addition reactions. Specifically, we developed highly general Markovnikov-selective protoboration and -silylation protocol of terminal alkynes that is agnostic to the electronic properties of both the alkyne substrate and the boryl/silyl nucleophile. This represents first report from a powerful new collaboration between three groups across three institutions in San Diego. Congrats to the entire authorship team: Yang, Aaron, and Keary (Scripps); Sima (SDSU/UCSD); Doug (SDSU); and Glen, Rudy, and Guy (UCSD).

For a link to the pre-print, click here: https://chemrxiv.org/articles/preprint/Cyclic_Alkyl_Amino_Carbene_Ligands_Enable_Cu-Catalyzed_Markovnikov_Protoboration_and_Protosilylation_of_Terminal_Alkynes_A_Versatile_Portal_to_Functionalized_Alkenes/14368607