Auto-tandem Catalysis of Triflic Imide in Organic Synthesis

Domino reactions have received great attention as efficient synthetic methodologies to construct structurally complex molecules from simple materials in a single operation. Recently a new concept, "tandem catalysis" in domino reactions has been proposed. Tandem catalysis is categorized into three subclasses: Orthogonal, auto-, and assisted-tandem catalysis. Auto-tandem catalysis is defined as a process in which one catalyst promotes more than two mechanistically different reactions in a single vessel. It has been discovered by several researchers including us that triflic imide (Tf2NH) activates a variety of chemical transformations, such as Mukaiyama-aldol reaction, conjugate addition, cycloadditions and so on. This account summarizes our recent development of auto-tandem catalysis of triflic imide.