Journal of the American Chemical Society
Article
aforementioned “boosting effect”. On the other hand, the low
diastereoselectivity of product 5bp was likely an outcome of
α-carbon epimerization.
Table 2. Alkyne Trifunctionalization with Gold Redox
Catalysis
a b
,
Mechanistic Studies and Functional Group Con-
versions. Under photochemical (blue LED) or thermal
conditions, arylgold(III) species were formed by treating
aryldiazonium with the gold(I) chloride complex.66,68 To gain
more mechanistic insight, we monitored the reaction with
nESI-MS (Figure 2A). Diagnostic signals of [AuIII−Ar]
catalyst and key intermediates A and B were all successfully
captured, whereas their structure compositions confirmed by
These HRMS results greatly supported the proposed reaction
sequence with formation of [AuIII−Ar] followed by alkyne π-
activation, vinyl−gold nucleophilic addition toward diazo-
nium salts, and finally AuIII reductive elimination.
Apart from its mechanistic novelty, the resulting 1,4-
diketone products contain versatile functional groups, which
make them interesting building blocks for complex molecular
skeleton construction. It is well-known that 1,4-diketone is a
good synthon for the synthesis of hetereocycles through
double condensation by reacting with amine or hydra-
zine.69,70 This approach was further confirmed by the
example shown in Figure 2B: treating 4a with Lawesson’s
reagent produces hydrozone-substituted thiophene 6a, a
corrector of a mutant cystic fibrosis transmembrane
conductance regulator (CFTR), in excellent yield.71 To
explore the synthetic applications of this new method, we put
our efforts into exploring new transformations that are
uniquely associated with the resulting products from the
following three perspectives: (1) selective carbonyl reduction
over hydrazone, (2) effective protocol for directing group
removal, and (3) selective hydrazone reduction to the N−N
bond.
For effective transformations of the resulting products, one
practical concern is the selective reduction of ketone (CO)
over CN and NN, or vice versa. After exploring multiple
typical reduction conditions, we are pleased to identify Pd/
C/H2 as an optimal condition for selective imine−ketone
reduction (5a to 6b, 90%). In addition, NaBH4 was identified
as the optimal reagent for ketone reduction over imine, giving
6c in 93% yields. Interestingly, the resulting diol 6c could be
readily coverted into substituted THF 6d, bearing an imine
moiety with no hydration. The result greatly enriched good
synthetic potential of this method by introducing multiple
functional groups in one simple step. Notably, the hydrazones
(6a−6d) were all assigned as E isomer based on X-ray single
crystals of starting material 5a. Although the γ-ketone
directing group is an useful synthetic handle as demonstrated
above, it could be more attractive if an effective directing
group removal strategy could be developed to further extend
the synthetic applications. After extensive condition screening,
aqueous HCl (3 N) was identified as the practical condition
for γ-ketone dissociation, giving hydrazones (7a−7c) in good
to excellent yields. Notably, this method not only gives an
effective approach to prepare hydrazones bearing more
reactive aldehyde (traditional condensation will not work)
but also allows the rapid construction formation of alkyl−aryl
hydrazone (7b, 7c), which could be readily converted into
the substituted cinnoline 8 by using reported conditions (two
steps, high yields). The hydrazones (7b, 7c) were assigned as
Z configuration based on the literature reported.72
entry
variation
5a (%)
3a (%)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
none
95 (94)
0
90
trace
10
0
85
88
<89
30
<10
<67
2
48
7
35
50
0
12
8
>8
15
<15
>20
no Li2CO3, Ru(bpy)3PF6, blue LED
PPh3AuCl
JohnPhosAuCl
IPrAuCl
(ArO)3PAuCl
(4-CF3C6H4)3AuCl
3.0 equiv of H2O
c
9
10
11
other solvents
Na2CO3 instead of Li2CO3
c
other bases
12
50 °C or higher
a
Standard conditions: 5% Cy3PAuCl, 1 equiv of water, and 0.4 mmol
of Li2CO3 were added to a MeCN solution (0.6 mL) of alkyne 1a (0.2
mmol) and aryldiazonium salt (0.6 mmol), and reaction was running
b
at 40 °C for 3 h. Conversion and yields were determined by 19F
1
NMR and H NMR spectroscopy using trifluorobenzene and 1,3,5-
trimethoxybenzene correspondingly as internal standard. See the
c
intermediates. In general, the reaction worked well for both
electron-deficient and electron-rich aryldiazonium salts. The
reaction of electron-deficient diazonium salts afforded
arylhydrazones 5a−5i with good to excellent yields while
the electron-rich diazonium salt gave a moderate yield (5j).
Interestingly, ortho- and meta-substituted aryldiazonium salts,
which were unsatisfactory substrates in the base-promoted
gold-redox process, worked well in this transformation (5k−
5n). Disubstitued aryldiazonium salts also exhibit decent
reactivity (5o−5r). Furthermore, substrates with diverse γ-
carbonyl DG including both aryl (including heterocycles) and
aliphatic substituents displayed good to excellent yields
(5aa−5an). Notably, although Ar−AuIII is a superior π-acid
which can activate alkenes, great chemoselectivity was
observed with carbon−carbon double bond remaining intact
in this transformation (5al). Some other functional groups
such as cyclopropyl and alkynyl also survived under the
reaction condition, exemplifying mildness and robustness of
this transformation. Significantly, when treating internal
alkynes with aryldiazonium 1a, azo compounds containing a
quaternary carbon center were formed (5ba−5bq). The
electron-deficient aryl-substituted internal alkynes dominantly
went through 5-exo-dig cyclization, providing azo compounds
in good to excellent yields (5ba−5bg, 5bj−5bm). In contrast,
less electron-deficient aryl-substituted internal alkynes
afforded azo products in slightly reduced yields as 5:1 and
3.5:1 regioisomers (1,4-diketones from 5-exo addition vs 1,5-
diketones from 6-endo addition), respectively (5bh and 5bi).
The electron-rich aryl-substituted internal alkyne (5bo) gave
exclusively 1,5-diketone in a good yield. Impressively, internal
alkynes with cyclic ketone directing group reacted with
diazonium salts, giving the desired product 5bq in modest
yield but with good diastereoselectivity. This result featured
stereoselectivity improvement of vinyl gold nucleophilic
addition by the 5-exocyclization mechanism besides the
4078
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 4074−4082