New Route To Rare Heterocycles

Researchers have created a series of unexpectedly stable boryl-dicarbonyl compounds and have used them to synthesize heterocyclic molecules that were previously difficult or impossible to make.

According to conventional wisdom among chemists, because the boryl-dicarbonyls have multiple reactive groups in close proximity, they should break down quickly. In this new work, however, they are stable and can undergo double-condensation reactions that result in ring formation. The heterocyclic products of these reactions could be useful as . . .