Tetrahedron Letters
Rhodium-catalyzed hydroaroylation of
aroyl chlorides and Et2MeSiH
a,b-unsaturated esters using
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Takako Muraoka, Eiji Hiraiwa, Minami Abe, Keiji Ueno
Division of Molecular Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Gunma University, Kiryu 376-8515, Japan
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Hydroaroylation of methyl acrylate 2a to give the
a-aroyl esters 4 took place in the three-component
Received 3 May 2013
Revised 30 May 2013
Accepted 4 June 2013
Available online 11 June 2013
reaction of 2a, aroyl chlorides 1, and Et2MeSiH in the presence of 1 mol % of [Rh(cod)(PR3)2]OTf
(cod = 1,5-cyclooctadiene, OTf = OSO2CF3, R = Ph (3a), OPh (3b)) in CH2Cl2. GC and 1H NMR investigation
revealed that the rhodium-catalyzed hydroaroylation proceeds via two successive transformations, that
is, hydrosilylation of 2a to afford silyl enol ether 5a followed by C–C bond formation between 5a and 1a.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Rh-catalyzed
Three-component coupling
Aroyl chloride
Hydrosilane
Introduction
Transition-metal catalyzed multicomponent reactions (MCRs)
involving C–C bond formation have been recognized as versatile
procedures for constructing the polyfunctional organic molecules.1
Neutral and cationic rhodium(I) complexes with monodentate or
bidentate phosphines as spectator ligands are widely investigated
as the catalyst for MCRs.2,3 In particular, RhX(PR3)n and [Rh(die-
ne)(PR3)2]+ types of complexes have been used for catalytic,
three-component reductive aldol condensations with aldehydes
Scheme 1. Catalytic reductive aldol condensations.
or ketones, a,b-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, and reducing re-
agents such as hydrosilanes or hydrogen gas (Scheme 1).4,5 The rho-
dium-catalyzed reactions with hydrosilanes proceed via the in situ
generation of enolate species which attacks aldehydes or ketones to
give the C–C bond formation products. Thus, the three-component
systems have significant advantages over the conventional two-
component aldol reactions since, in the latter case, the enolate spe-
cies should be prepared independently from carbonyl compounds
using a stoichiometric amount of strong bases.
Development of the Rh-catalyzed systems applicable to a vari-
ety of electrophiles instead of aldehydes and ketones would pro-
vide efficient synthetic procedures for carbonyl compounds,
however, such examples are limited to only an aldimine and a ket-
imine as the electrophiles.6 We and co-workers have investigated
on rhodium-catalyzed three-component couplings of electrophiles
Scheme 2. Rh-catalyzed hydroaroylation of
chlorides 1 and Et2MeSiH.
a,b-unsaturated esters 2 with aroyl
a-amido-, and b-amino carbonyls, are selectively produced owing
to preferential enolate generation followed by selective C–C bond
formation with electrophiles. During the course of the study, we
found that aroyl chloride 1 is applicable as an electrophile to the
rhodium-catalyzed three-component reaction system. Aroyl chlo-
rides have been known as efficient substrates for introducing a
keto group to aromatic substrates electrophilically, that is, Lewis
acid induced/catalyzed Friedel–Crafts acylation.8 Aroyl chlorides
have also been used for palladium-catalyzed cross-couplings with
organometallic reagents, including organoboron, organotin, and
organozinc reagents, to afford aromatic ketones.9 However, the
organometallic reagents required for the catalytic cross-coupling
(allyl carbonates, aryl isocyanates, and aldimines),
a,b-unsaturated
carbonyl compounds, and hydrosilanes.6a,7 In these reactions,
functionalized carbonyl compounds, such as
c,d-unsaturated-,
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0040-4039/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.