# Carbonylative Coupling of 1‑Iodoglucal and Amino Acids: Access to New Fluorescent Sugar Amino Acids

## TL;DR

This paper describes a new chemical method to create fluorescent sugar amino acids using a palladium-catalyzed reaction without carbon monoxide gas.

## Contribution

A novel palladium-catalyzed carbonylative coupling method using a CO surrogate for synthesizing fluorescent sugar amino acids.

## Key findings

- The method achieved up to 65% yield for coupling 1-iodoglucal with amino acid methyl esters.
- Fluorescent derivatives with stilbene moieties showed high fluorescence quantum yields and distinct optical properties.

## Abstract

This study reports
on the development of a palladium-catalyzed
carbonylative coupling reaction for synthesizing glucal amino acids
and fluorescent amino acid derivatives. A metal carbonyl was employed
as a CO surrogate, avoiding the use of CO gas. Utilizing Pd­(OAc)2 and triphenylphosphine, methyl esters of L-amino acids were
coupled with 1-iodoglucal under optimized reaction conditions. Yields
of up to 65% were achieved. The methodology was applied to amino acids
with different side chains. Notably, the synthesized fluorescent derivatives
containing stilbene moieties exhibited distinct absorption and emission
properties with high fluorescence quantum yields.