Organosuperbase-Catalyzed 1,1-Diboration of Alkynes

1,1-Diboryl alkenes are versatile building blocks in organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry. However, there have been only a small number of established methods to prepare this class of compounds, and most of them used transition-metal catalysts, which are undesirable in the preparation of biologically relevant compounds. Herein, we report an unprecedented application of P1–tBu phosphazene as a superbasic organocatalyst to promote 1,1-diboration reactions of unactivated aromatic and electron-deficient terminal alkynes. The dual Brønsted and Lewis basicity of this phosphazene enables the activation of reaction substrates and allows for high regio- and stereoselectivity to be obtained. A combination of thorough experimental and computational studies suggests interesting mechanistic insights for these phosphazene-catalyzed diboration reactions, which are also discussed in detail.