Regenerative glycosylation under nucleophilic catalysis.

This article describes 3,3-difluoroxindole (HOFox)-mediated glycosylation. The uniqueness of this approach is that both the in situ synthesis of 3,3-difluoro-3H-indol-2-yl (OFox) glycosyl donors and activation thereof can be conducted in a regenerative fashion as is a typical reaction performed under nucleophilic catalysis. Only a catalytic amount of the OFox imidate donor and a Lewis acid activator are present in the reaction medium. The OFox imidate donor is constantly regenerated upon its consumption until glycosyl acceptor has reacted.