Angewandte
Chemie
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201205880
Synthetic Methods
Domino Reactions of Donor–Acceptor-Substituted Cyclopropanes for
the Synthesis of 3,3’-Linked Oligopyrroles and Pyrrolo[3,2-e]indoles**
Johannes Kaschel, Tobias F. Schneider, Daniel Kratzert, Dietmar Stalke, and Daniel B. Werz*
Pyrroles, oligopyrroles, and their derivatives are widespread
in nature.[1] Furthermore, they play an important role in
material science[2] and medicinal chemistry.[3] Among oligo-
pyrroles, differentiation is made between the 2,2’-linked
derivatives and those which are connected at the 3-position.
Methods for the synthesis of 2,2’-linked oligopyrroles are
multifarious, including Paal–Knorr cyclizations,[4] Vilsmeier
condensations,[5] dipolar cycloadditions,[6] Ullmann cou-
plings,[7] and other metal-mediated coupling reactions.[8] In
contrast, the number of reports concerning the 3,3’-linkage of
pyrrole moieties is much lower.[9,10] 3,3’-Linked dimers have
been accessed, for instance, by Pd-catalyzed rearrangements
of N-bridged diynes,[11] by Barton–Zard synthesis on pyrrole
derivatives,[12] or by oxidative couplings.[13] Potential cross-
coupling reactions suffer from the heavy accessibility of
3-substituted pyrroles. To the best of our knowledge, the only
approach to 3,3’-linked oligopyrroles with more than two
pyrrole units was performed by Magnus et al.[14] They applied
a repetitive route using olefins and (p-toluenesulfonyl)methyl
Scheme 1. Previously reported oligoacetal synthesis (top) as well as
envisioned bispyrrole synthesis (bottom) starting from furan (1).
isocyanide as key reagent to build up the pyrrole moieties in
a stepwise fashion, giving rise to electron-poor N-tosyl
substituted oligomers.[14]
rearrange immediately to 3 (Scheme 1, top).[19] On the basis of
computational investigations regarding the ring enlargement
of a variety of D-A cyclopropanes, we realized that imine
acceptors as in 4 have a similar activation barrier for the
cyclopropane–heterocyclopentene rearrangement compared
to the respective aldehydes.[20] Thus, we thought of the
formation of imines (from the corresponding stable ketones)
leading to immediate ring enlargement (Scheme 1,
bottom).[21] We anticipated that the annulated 2,3-dihydro-
pyrrole moieties in 5 obtained in this transformation should
eliminate water, affording bispyrroles of type 6, as the
tendency towards aromatization is much higher than in the
case of the analogous 2,3-dihydrofuran derivative 3.
Herein we report the preparation of 3,3’-oligopyrroles,
and even hitherto unknown electron-rich congeners, by
making use of a domino sequence[15] initiated by the ring-
enlargement of donor–acceptor-substituted (D-A) cyclopro-
panes.[16–18] This method allows a very fast and versatile access
to bispyrroles, but also to ter- and quaterpyrroles.
Recently, we developed a method, starting from furan (1),
to oligocyclic oligoacetals such as 3. Key intermediates are D-
A cyclopropanes with aldehyde acceptors of type 2 that
[*] Dipl.-Chem. J. Kaschel, Dipl.-Chem. T. F. Schneider,
Priv.-Doz. Dr. D. B. Werz
To test our hypothesis, we prepared aliphatic and aromatic
diketones 8 as starting materials (Table 1). Therefore, the
diesters of type 7, which are available in one step from
furan,[22] were converted via the Weinreb amides into the
respective tricyclic diketones 8. Diketone 8a (R1 = H; R2 =
Me) was selected as model substrate to explore optimized
reaction conditions for the anticipated cascade consisting of
imine formation, ring enlargement, and elimination of water.
Aniline was chosen as the reaction partner. The best results
were obtained using p-toluenesulfonic acid in benzene at
808C after a reaction time of 2 h (for details of the
optimization, see the Supporting Information).[23]
Institut fꢀr Organische und Biomolekulare Chemie
Georg-August-Universitꢁt Gçttingen
Tammannstrasse 2, 37077 Gçttingen (Germany)
E-mail: dwerz@gwdg.de
Dipl.-Chem. D. Kratzert, Prof. Dr. D. Stalke
Institut fꢀr Anorganische Chemie
Georg-August-Universitꢁt Gçttingen
Tammannstrasse 4, 37077 Gçttingen (Germany)
[**] We thank the German Research Foundation (DFG), the German–
Israeli Foundation (G.I.F.), the Danish National Research Founda-
tion (DNRF), and the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie (Emmy
Noether Fellowship and Dozentenstipendium to D.B.W.). We thank
Prof. Dr. Rolf Gleiter and Prof. Dr. Lutz F. Tietze for helpful
discussions.
The scope of this reaction was evaluated under these
optimized conditions by changing both the diketone 8 as well
as the amine. Six different diketones 8a–8 f were employed.
As substituent R1 on the three-membered ring, H, Me, and Ph
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 11153 –11156
ꢀ 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
11153