.
Angewandte
Communications
Table 2: Scope of A-catalyzed one-pot synthesis of quinolines 4.[a]
and thus aromatize under acidic conditions. An aromatic
sulfonamide that bears an electron-donating moiety assists in
the development of the carbocationic character for a favorable
dehydration–aromatization process, while a sulfonamide that
bears a strong electron-withdrawing moiety will inhibit this
development. Indeed, when the Tf protecting group was used,
aromatization product 4a was not formed (Table 1, entry 2).
Instead, stable, chiral 1,4-dihydroquinoline 3b was obtained
in 64% yield, but with only 7% ee after column chromatog-
raphy on silica gel. We also found that the Michael/aldol
cascade proceeded rapidly (5 h), presumably because of the
tendency of the more acidic TfNH moiety to produce TfNꢀ
more easily. The influence of the electronic effect was further
demonstrated for aromatic sulfonyl groups that bear electron-
donating (2c; Table 1, entry 3), electron-neutral, and elec-
tron-withdrawing substituents (see Table S1). Based on these
studies, we decided to use p-MeOC6H4SO2 as protecting
group for further optimization of the reaction conditions. The
screening of solvents and bases (Table S1) led to the optimal
conditions, which include the use of K2CO3 (0.1 equiv) at
508C with 10 mol% catalyst loading (Table 1, entry 4). The
scope of Michael/aldol/aromatization cascade reactions cata-
lyzed by organocatalyst A was probed accordingly (Table 2).
The tandem process serves as a general approach to the
preparation of valuable polysubstituted quinolines. In the
cascade process, the reactions proceeded in high yields (76–
99%) with a broad substrate scope. It seems that the
electronic nature of aromatic ynals 1 has a limited effect on
the process. The electron-neutral (Table 2, entries 1, 15, 17–
20, and 23), electron-donating (entries 3, 4, 9, and 11), and
electron-withdrawing (entries 2, 5–8, 12, 16, 21, 22, and 24)
substituents could be tolerated with significant structural
variation. A similar trend was observed for heteroaromatic
ynals, such as thiophen-2-yl-propynal (Table 2, entry 10).
Furthermore, the reaction worked well with less reactive
aliphatic ynals 1 (Table 2, entries 13 and 14), although
a higher catalyst loading (20 mol%) was needed and rela-
tively low yields were observed. On the other hand, the
reaction could be applied to substrates 2 with a broad
structural scope. Again, the survey of the electronic effect
shows that its impact is limited. Both electron-donating (X =
Me; Table 2, entries 15 and 16) and electron-withdrawing
(X = Cl; entries 17 and 18) groups are well tolerated. More-
over, significantly more hindered and less reactive ketone
moieties in substrates 2 (i.e., R2 ¼ H) are compatible with this
methodology (Table 2, entries 19–24). Structurally diverse
ketones can be used in the process to give trisubstituted
quinolines 4 with high efficiency. With an increased steric
Entry
R1, R2, X
4
t [h]
Yield [%][b]
1
2
3
4
Ph, H, H
4a
4b
4c
4d
4e
4 f
4g
4h
4i
4j
4k
4l
4m
4n
4o
4p
4q
4r
16
16
24
21
16
16
20
16
16
16
16
13
16
20
24
24
16
16
22
12
12
16
16
16
99
97
92
95
96
98
91
92
95
92
97
95
80
83
98
90
94
91
84
80
78
76
96
98
4-BrC6H4, H, H
4-MeC6H4, H, H
4-MeOC6H4, H, H
2-ClC6H4, H, H
4-FC6H4, H, H
4-CNC6H4, H, H
4-ClC6H4, H, H
2-MeOC6H4, H, H
2-thienyl, H, H
3-MeOC6H4, H, H
3-CNC6H4, H, H
nC5H11, H, H
Ph(CH2)2, H, H
Ph, H, 6-Me
4-ClC6H4, H, 6-Me
Ph, H, 4-Cl
Ph, H, 5-Cl
Ph, Me, H
5
6
7[c]
8
9[d]
10
11[d]
12[c]
13[c]
14[c]
15[d]
16[d]
17
18
19[c]
20[c,e]
21[c,e]
22[e]
23[f]
24[f]
4s
4t
4u
4v
4w
4x
=
Ph, (E)-PhCH CH, H
4-ClC6H4, (E)-PhCH CH, H
4-FC6H4, (E)-PhCH CH, H
Ph, Ph, H
=
=
4-BrC6H4, Ph, H
[a] For reaction conditions, see Experimental Section. [b] Yields of
isolated products. [c] 20 mol% of catalyst A used. [d] 15 mol% of
catalyst A used. [e] The aromatization step required heating at 508C for
.
3 h in the presence of silica gel. [f] 1.0 equiv of NaHSO4 H2O added and
mixture stirred at 508C for 24 h. TEA=triethylamine, Tf=trifluorome-
thanesulfonyl, Ts=4-toluenesulfonyl.
aromatization (Table 1, entry 2). However, with catalyst A,
the 1,4-dihydroquinoline was only obtained with 7% ee.
When more bulky ketone 5a was used, the enantioselectivity
induced by (S)-diphenylprolinol TMS ether A improved
dramatically under similar reaction conditions (Table 3,
entry 1, 76% ee, 99% yield). A range of chiral a,a-diaryl-
prolinol silyl ether catalysts (A–D) were subsequently
probed, but the results were not encouraging (Table 3,
entries 2–4). It should be pointed out that for the model
reaction of phenylpropargyl aldehyde (1a) with 2’-(trifluoro-
methanesulfonyl)aminochalcone (5a), 5a and the formed
product 6a have the same polarity, thus rendering the
optimization process tedious because of difficult purification.
To minimize the work load, we chose more polar 3-nitro-
phenyl propargyl aldehyde as model substrate for the
subsequent optimization. A similar level of enantioselectivity
was obtained with catalyst A (Table 3, entry 5, 72% ee).
Gratifyingly, when C2-symmetric catalyst (2R,5R)-diphenyl-
pyrrolidine (E)[16] was employed, the enantioselectivity was
significantly enhanced to 87%, and full conversion was
achieved in only one hour (Table 3, entry 6). Furthermore,
solvent screening showed that the enantioselectivity was
2
2
=
hindrance of the R group, that is, R = CH3, (E)-PhCH CH,
and Ph, more drastic conditions for the aromatization
reaction were required, although high yields (76–98%)
could still be achieved under relatively mild conditions.
Having established an efficient protocol for the prepara-
tion of quinolines through an organocatalytic aza-Michael/
aldol/aromatization cascade process, we turned our attention
to aza-Michael/aldol cascade reactions for the one-pot
preparation of structurally diverse chiral 1,4-dihydroquino-
lines. The above-mentioned study showed that the use of Tf as
protecting group led to the product without subsequent
2
ꢀ 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 1 – 7
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