Au-Catalyzed Alkyne Insertion
COMMUNICATION
spectrum showed intense signals for liberated benzaldehyde.
The phenyl-substituted substrate 1d, with a methyl group on
the furan 3-C, was tested next. The reaction was finished
within 4 min and the product 3d was isolated with a much
better yield of 44% (Table 3, entry 3). The formation of
para-anisaldehyde as a side product was observed in this
case. The more electron-donating para-anisyl-substituted 1e
gave the product 3e in 43% yield (Table 3, entry 4).
oacetyl group as the protecting group on nitrogen in sub-
strate 1t resulted in no formation of the insertion product
(Table 3, entry 19); however, phenol 2t was isolated in 23%
yield.
The structure of insertion product 3 was confirmed by X-
ray crystal-structure analysis for 3k (Figure 3).[11] Two
carbon atoms of the substrate triple bond were formally in-
serted into a carbon–carbon single bond. Formation of
phenol as the expected product was also confirmed by X-ray
crystal structure analysis of compounds 2 f and 2t (Figures 4
and 5).[11]
Having found that the oxy-tethered systems deliver the in-
sertion products only in moderate yields with partial frag-
mentation of the substrate, which corresponds to our previ-
ous observation of a slow reaction in the case of a bridging
oxygen,[12] we returned to nitrogen-tethered substrates. Thus
the substrate 1m with a furyl moiety on the tether was used,
and the five-membered-ring product 3m was isolated in
42% yield (Table 3, entry 12). The substrate 1n, with
a para-anisyl substituent on the tether and a methyl group
on the furan 3-C, was quite reactive and highly selective,
and the insertion product 3n was isolated in a very good
yield of 78% (Table 3, entry 13). The reaction of NSO2tBu-
tethered 1l, which contains a cyclopropyl substituent, was
also impressive, and the product 3l was isolated in 75%
yield (Table 3, entry 11). The substrate 1o followed suit and
furnished 3o with an impressive yield of 85% (Table 3,
entry 14). Most remarkably, none of these substrates showed
Figure 3. Solid-state molecular structure of insertion product 3k.
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any trace of the phenol products in the crude H NMR spec-
tra. The same is true for the reactions of 1p and 1q
(Table 3, entries 15 and 16, respectively), which also provide
evidence that for 3-methylfurans with aryl substituents in
the tether, this reaction can be regarded as a viable synthetic
method.
However, an electron-withdrawing substituent on the
furan ring was not tolerated; the bromofuran compound 1r
did not react, even after a prolonged reaction time (4 days;
Table 3, entry 17). The interesting substrate 1v, which has
a longer tether consisting of two carbon atoms, did not de-
liver the six-membered insertion product, but reacted in the
classical fashion to form the phenol 2v in 65% isolated
yield (Table 3, entry 21). The substrates 1s and 1w with
ethyl substitution also gave the phenols 2s and 2w, respec-
tively (Table 3, entries 18 and 22). The substrate 1u with an
allyl substituent provided a complex product mixture, and
the phenol product 2u was isolated in only 32% (Table 3,
entry 20).
Figure 4. Solid-state molecular structure of phenol 2 f.
Figure 5. Solid-state molecular structure of phenol 2t.
As the positive charge in the cationic intermediate A is
stabilized by the group R in the tether, the nitrogen also
plays an important role in stabilizing the intermediate.
Hence, the protecting group on the nitrogen atom influences
its ability to stabilize a positive charge in the a position.
With a methylsulfonyl group in substrate 1 f, insertion prod-
uct 3 f and phenol 2 f were obtained in yields of 22% and
29%, respectively (Table 3, entry 5). Furanyne 1g delivered
a similar result for the insertion product 3g (23%, Table 3,
entry 6), whereas more sterically demanding protecting
groups increased the formation of the insertion product up
to 75% isolated yield (Table 3, entries 7–11). In accordance
with this observation, the use of an electronegative trifluor-
Benzofuran substrate 1x delivered neither phenol nor the
insertion product, in accordance with our previous observa-
tions in the context of gold-catalyzed phenol synthesis.[13] In-
stead, hydroarylation product 4x was isolated from reaction
under the optimized conditions in 83% yield (Scheme 4).
The structure of 4x was also confirmed by X-ray crystal-
structure analysis (Figure 6).[11]
For confirmation of the proposed mechanism shown in
Scheme 3, which involves the cationic achiral intermedia-
te A, the enantiomerically enriched compound 1y and enan-
Chem. Eur. J. 2012, 00, 0 – 0
ꢂ 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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