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R. Wang et al. / Tetrahedron Letters 55 (2014) 2233–2237
Table 1
Screening conditionsa
O
O
N
O
N
Transition metal-free
N
H
+
H
N
1a
2a
3a
Entry
TBAI (mol %)
[O] (equiv)
Additive (equiv)
DMF (equiv)
Yieldb (%)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
147
15
16c
17d
18e
19f
20g
20
20
20
20
20
10
20
40
20
20
20
20
20
20
20 (I2)
20
20
20
20
20
TBHP (5)
TBHP (5)
—
15
15
15
15
10
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
45
20
42:58:73
80
80
76
70
38
51
46
Trace
Trace
Trace
Trace
22
<5
Trace
43
AcOH (1.5:3:5)
AcOH (5)
AcOH (5)
AcOH (5)
AcOH (5)
AcOH (10)
AcOH (5)
PhCOOH (5)
TFA (3)
TfOH (3)
PTSA (3)
AcOH (5)
AcOH (5)
AcOH (5)
AcOH (5)
AcOH (5)
AcOH (5)
AcOH(5)
AcOH (5)
TBHP (10)
TBHP (12)
TBHP (10)
TBHP (10)
TBHP (10)
TBHP (10)
TBHP (10)
TBHP (10)
TBHP (10)
TBHP (10)
H2O2 (10)
UHP (10)
TBHP (10)
TBHP (10)
TBHP (10)
TBHP (10)
TBHP (10)
TBHP (10)
<5
<10
<10
a
Reaction conditions: A mixture of benzoxazole (1a, 1 mmol), DMF, Bu4NI, TBHP (70% aqueous solution) and acid additive was stirred in solvent (3.0 mL) at 90 °C for
reaction, The given equivalents (equiv) are related to 1a.
b
Isolated yield after column chromatography.
Reaction was carried out in dioxane, acetonitrile, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate and DMF, respectively. AcOH = acetic acid, DCE = 1,2-dichloroethane, TFA = trifluoro-
c–g
acetic acid, TfOH = trifluoromethanesulfonic acid, PTSA = p-toluenesulfonic acid.
(Table 1). Fortunately, we were pleased to observe that the desired
product (3a) was obtained albeit in low yield when a TBAI catalyst
(20 mol %) was used in the presence of tert-butyl hydroperoxide
(TBHP) under an air atmosphere (Table 1, entry 1). Encouraged
by this result, we decided to screen the reaction conditions.
Gratifyingly, increasing the amount of AcOH resulted in high yields
indicating the significance of the acid additive in the reaction
(Table 1, entry 2). The reaction yields could be further improved
to 80% when 10 equiv of TBHP was employed (Table 1, entries 3
and 4), while decreasing the amount of DMF or catalyst resulted
in low yields (Table 1, entries 5 and 6). Particularly notable, exces-
sive amounts of catalyst or additive caused the decomposition of
raw material and led to a dramatically decreased conversion
(Table 1, entries 7 and 8). Furthermore, various additives were
investigated, compared to AcOH, PhCOOH was less effective,
whereas strong acid such as TFA, TfOH, or PTSA were completely
ineffective additives (Table 1, entries 9–12). Alteration TBHP with
H2O2 was proved to be less effective, although increasing the
concentration of H2O2 afforded slightly higher yield, due probably
to H2O2 poorer tendency to the formation of nitrogen-centered
radicals than TBHP (Table 1, entries 13 and 14). When iodine was
employed instead of our catalytic system, the corresponding reac-
tion proceeded sluggishly presumably attributed to their poorer
capability to promote the formation of aminyl radical than TBAI
(Table 1, entry 14). We then surveyed the effect of different sol-
vents: the reactions proceeded with low yields in dioxane, acetoni-
trile, EtOAc, DCM, and DMF (Table 1, entries 15–19), DCE was an
adequate choice of solvent for the reaction to achieve a high yield.
Under these optimized conditions (Table 1, entry 3), the scope
of this reaction with different formamides was investigated. The
N,N-disubstituted formamides such as N,N-diethylformamide,
N,N-dipropylformamide reacted smoothly, furnishing moderate
yields (Table 2, entries 2 and 3). However, substrate N,N-diisopro-
pylformamide did not give the desired product, perhaps as a result
of steric hindrance (Table 2, entry 4). Furthermore, we screened
cyclic formamides such as 1-formylpyrrolidine, 1-formylpiperidine
and 4-formylmorpholine that provided the highest yield of desired
products (Table 2, entries 5–7). Interestingly, the N-monosubsti-
tuted formamides could be also converted to the corresponding
2-aminobenzoxazoles in moderate yield under our reaction condi-
tions, it was observed that N-methylformamide gave synthetically
acceptable yield (Table 2, entry 8). In addition, N-cyclopentylfor-
mamide and N-cyclohexylformamide offered an appreciable yield
of the desired product (Table 2, entries 9 and 10). Notably, N-
unsubstituted formamides were completely ineffective substrate
(Table 2, entry 11).
Regarding the benzoxazole moiety, several functional groups
including electron-donating (methyl, methoxy, phenyl, and tert-
butyl) and electron-withdrawing (chloro, bromo, and nitro) sub-
stituents were tolerated well (Table 2, entries 12–22). It is note-
worthy that halo-substituted benzoxazoles were compatible
under standard conditions, thus leading to halo-substituted prod-
ucts, which could be used for further transformations (Table 2, en-
tries 17–19). The position of the substituents on the phenyl ring of
benzoxazoles affected the reaction yield slightly. Interestingly, a
reaction with 5-nitrobenzoxazole (Table 2, entry 20) afforded the
corresponding product with a slightly lower yield which was
proved to be an ineffective substrate in FeCl3-catalyzed direct
amination.3h In the case of electronic nature of the aromatic
motifs, such as 5-phenylbenzoxazole, containing electron-donating
substituent, increased yields of products were obtained
(Table 2, entries 14–16, 21 and 22), the effect is the reverse with
electron-withdrawing substituents and transformed into the de-
sired products in synthetically acceptable yields (Table 2, entries
17–20). It is worth noting that 5-methylbenzoxazole gave only
72% yield (Table 2, entry 11), which was less effective when com-
pared to the approach mediated by Ag2CO3 or FeCl3 that probably
attributed to the benzylic CAH bond oxidation of the substrate