Tetrahydropyran acetals bearing a fluorine atom adjacent to the acetal carbon atom can undergo highly stereoselective substitution reactions with nucleophilic alkenes to give the 1,2- products. By contrast, the chlorine- and bromine-substituted acetals give the 1,2- products. These results can be understood by considering oxocarbenium ion intermediates and their conformational preferences, which are dictated by hyperconjugative effects from axial substituents, with F ≪ H < Cl < Br. Reactions of the corresponding five-membered-ring acetals are also 1,2- selective in the case of fluorine and 1,2- selective with chlorine- and bromine-substituted acetals, but selectivities showed different trends of reactivity vs selectivity. The reactions with the five-membered-ring acetal were interpreted as requiring anomeric halides as reactive intermediates because of the conditions required to obtain substitution products.

The mechanism of the 1,2-spin-center shift in carbohydrate systems was studied with a fluorenylcyclopropyl radical clock. The 1,2-rearrangement of the acyl fluorenylcyclopropane group without opening of the cyclopropane ring provides the strongest evidence that the 1,2-spin-center shift in carbohydrate systems occurs through a concerted transition state without the intermediacy of a 1,3-dioxolanyl radical.

The alkylations of chiral seven-membered rings fused to tetrazoles are highly diastereoselective. The diastereoselectivity depended on the placement and the size of the substituent on the ring and on the electrophile. Subsequent alkylations occurred with high stereoselectivity, allowing for the construction of quaternary stereocenters. Computational studies revealed that torsional effects are responsible for the observed diastereoselectivities. Substituted products can be reduced to the corresponding secondary amines, thus providing an approach for synthesizing diastereomerically enriched azepanes.

Unlike many reactions of their six-membered-ring counterparts, the reactions of chiral seven-membered-ring enolates are highly diastereoselective. Diastereoselectivity was observed for a range of substrates, including lactam, lactone, and cyclic ketone derivatives. The stereoselectivity arises from torsional and steric interactions that develop when electrophiles approach the diastereotopic π-faces of the enolates, which are distinguished by subtle differences in the orientation of nearby atoms of the ring.