Hypervalent Chalcogen Bonds Catalysis on the Intramolecular Aza‐Michael Reaction of Aminochalcone: Catalytic Performance and Chalcogen Bond Properties.

Chalcogen bond (ChB) catalysis, as a new type in the field of non‐covalent bond catalysis, has become a hot research topic in the field of organocatalysis in recent years. In the present work, we investigated the catalytic performance of a series of hypervalent ChB catalysis based on the intramolecular Aza‐Michael reaction of aminochalcone. The reaction includes the carbon‐nitrogen bond coupling step (key step) and the proton transfer step. The catalytic performance of mono‐dentate pentafluorophenyl chalcogen bond donor ChB1 was comparable to that of bis‐dentate chalcogen bond donor ChB4, and stronger than that of mono‐dentate chalcogen bond donors ChB2 and ChB3. The formation of the chalcogen bond between the catalyst and the carbonyl oxygen atom of the reactant, causing the charge rearrangement of the reactant and C(1) charge of the −C−Ph group to become more positive, thereby the ChB catalysis promoted the nucleophile reaction. The electron density of the chalcogen bond of the pre‐complex, the most positive electrostatic potentials of the catalyst, and the NPA charge of the key atom are proportional to the Gibbs energy barrier of the C−N bond coupling process, which provides an idea to predict the catalytic activity of the ChB catalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]