A new tetraarylpyrrole-based phosphine ligand L1 in combination with Pd(dba)2 provided a catalyst for the Buchwald–Hartwig amination reaction. A variety of amines were rapidly coupled with aryl chlorides at a Pd loading of 0.5 mol%. The selective monoarylation of aliphatic primary amines was achieved in the presence of 0.8 equiv. water. Comparison experiments were also conducted, which revealed that

The isocyanide-induced esterification of sulfinic acids with alcohols or thiophenols access to sulfinates has been developed. Various primary, secondary, and tertiary alcohols could be compatible with the established protocols. Notably, such an isocyanide-induced synthetic strategy presented the advantages of simple operation, good functional group tolerance, and more than 40 examples up to 99% yields

Enzymes bind, and thus stabilize selectively, the transition state of the reaction they catalyze. The intuition of Fischer, who introduced the lock and key principle,(8) proved unsuitable to explain enzyme catalysis. Pauling was the first(9) in 1948 who suggested enzymes’ trick was to stabilize the transition state of a reaction rather than the ground state.(10) More recently Jencks has authoritatively