A new strategy to effectively lock the conformation of substituents at the 3,3'-positions of axial-chiral biisoquinoline N,N'-dioxides was developed based on the strong dipole-dipole interaction between 1,2,3-triazole and pyridine N-oxide rings. The crystal structure and the DFT calculations of 3,3'-bis(1-benzyl-1H-1,2,3-triazole-4-yl)-1,1'-biisoquinoline N,N'-dioxide (3a) provided strong support for this strategy. Furthermore, we successfully demonstrated that readily available 4-trimethylsilyl-1,2,3-triazoles are viable nucleophiles for Hiyama cross-coupling.
Keywords: 1,2,3-triazoles; Hiyama cross-coupling; axial-chiral Lewis bases; catalyst design; computational chemistry.