Angewandte
Chemie
this context, Stille coupling of alkoxyethynyl tin reagents has
been described,[10] but Sonogashira coupling could directly
connect the aryl iodides and ynol ethers without necessitating
prefunctionalization of the acetylene motif. While the Sono-
gashira coupling between menthol-derived ynol ethers and
terminal vinyl iodides has been investigated,[11] the only
Sonogashira coupling between an ynol ether and an aryl
halide of which we are aware proceeded in only 11%
yield.[12,13]
To develop the ketene-surrogate coupling, we first inves-
tigated the palladium-catalyzed coupling of alkyl ynol ethers
with aryl iodides. 4-Cyanoiodobenzene (4a) was combined
with ethoxy acetylene, [Pd(PPh3)4], and CuI in triethyl amine
(Table 1, entry 1). No desired product was isolated, and the
arising from tert-butoxyacetylene and the aryl iodide reacting
in a 2:1 ratio.
To minimize the formation of ester and carboxylic acid
side-products, we included molecular sieves in the reaction.
Additionally, the use of a bulkier base, iPr2NEt, suppressed
the generation of the enynol ether 8a (Table 1, entry 3).
Under these reaction conditions, the aryl-substituted ynol
ether 5a was formed in an improved 85% yield. The enynol
8a could arise from either dimerization of tert-butoxyacety-
lene and subsequent coupling with the aryl iodide or
carbometalation of the Sonogashira product 5a. We favor
the former hypothesis because tert-buytoxyacetylene did not
add to the isolated ynol ether 5a under the reaction
conditions. We speculate that a bulky amine prevents the
[(R3N)nCu(acetylide)] complex from reacting with a second
equivalent of tert-butoxyacetylene. Ultimately, the reprodu-
cibility of the reaction could be improved by forming
[Pd(PPh3)n] in situ from [Pd2(dba)3] and PPh3 (entry 4).[16]
Unfortunately, when these reaction conditions were applied
to an electron-neutral substrate (4b), incomplete conversion
was observed (entry 5). Changing to a secondary amine
(iPr2NH) accelerated the coupling (entry 5) without intro-
ducing impurities. Under these reaction conditions, the aryl
iodide 4b was completely consumed, and the aryl-substituted
ynol ether 5b was formed in good yield (entry 6). Reactions
with iPr2NH are generally faster than those containing
iPr2NEt, but electron-poor arenes form small quantities of
the corresponding tertiary amide (e.g. 9a) during the reaction.
Accordingly, we generally recommend iPr2NEt for electron-
poor substrates and iPr2NH for electron-rich and electron-
neutral substrates. Finally, sterically hindered substrates such
as 4c benefited from an even more active catalyst. In
particular, tri(2-furyl)phosphine formed a competent catalyst
in conjunction with [Pd2(dba)3], thus promoting the coupling
of a hindered aryl iodide in good yield (entry 8). To
summarize, three closely related reaction conditions accom-
modate a wide variety of substrate classes: the couplings are
usually more efficient with iPr2NH than with iPr2NEt,
although with electron-deficient substrates, we observed
minor amounts of the amide 9 when iPr2NH was used.
While these substrates perform admirably with inexpensive
PPh3, challenging aryl iodides often necessitate the electron-
deficient phosphine TFP.
Table 1: Optimization of coupling conditions.[a]
Entry R1
R2
Catalyst
Amine Additive Yield
[%][b]
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
4-CN (4a) Et
[Pd(PPh3)4]
Et3N
Et3N
–
–
<5
54
4-CN
4-CN
4-CN
tBu [Pd(PPh3)4]
tBu [Pd(PPh3)4]
tBu [Pd2(dba)3]/PPh3
iPr2NEt 4 ꢀ M.S.
iPr2NEt 4 ꢀ M.S.
iPr2NEt 4 ꢀ M.S.
iPr2NH 4 ꢀ M.S.
iPr2NH 4 ꢀ M.S.
85
95
66
89
55
79
[c]
[c]
[c]
[c]
4-Me (4b) tBu [Pd2(dba)3]/PPh3
4-Me tBu [Pd2(dba)3]/PPh3
2-Me (4c) tBu [Pd2(dba)3]/PPh3
2-Me
tBu [Pd2(dba)3]/TFP[c] iPr2NH 4 ꢀ M.S.
[a] Reactions were conducted on a 0.1 mmol scale; 0.25m in 1:1 (v/v)
amine/ynol ether. [b] Yields determined by NMR spectroscopy using
1,3,5-trimethoxybenzene as an internal standard. [c] Used 20 mol%
phosphine. dba=dibenzylideneacetone, M.S.=molecular sieves,
TFP=tri(2-furyl)phosphine.
The coupling tolerates a wide range of electronic proper-
ties and functional groups (see Table 2). In these experiments,
copper, palladium, and amines were removed by rapid
chromatography using neutral Al2O3. In general, electron-
neutral or electron-rich Sonogashira products were isolated in
high purity whereas electron-poor congeners were prone to
hydrolysis. For example, the ynol derived from 4-methoxy-
iodobenzene was stored for more than one year at 48C with
no signs of decomposition. In contrast, the p-CN-substituted
ynol 5a underwent hydrolysis (5–10%) upon attempted
purification. Therefore, after filtration over Al2O3, the crude
aryl-substituted ynol ethers 5 were heated in the presence of
morpholine to generate, consecutively, the aryl ketene (1) and
then the morpholine amides (10; Table 2).[17] These amides
were targeted because of their utility in the synthesis of
ketones. They behave similarly to Weinreb amides, but are
alkyne appeared to have polymerized under the reaction
conditions. Reasoning that a more sterically hindered alkyne
might be less prone to polymerization, we repeated the
experiment using tert-butoxyacetylene.[14] In addition to being
more stable, tert-butoxyacetylenes rearrange to ketenes at
around 808C compared to 1208C, which is required for
conversion of ethoxyacetylenes into ketenes.[15] We were
encouraged by the formation of the alkyne 5a in 54% yield
when tert-butoxyacetylene was used (entry 2). The reaction
also generated products arising from hydration and hydrolysis
of 5a (6a and 7a, respectively), and the enyne 8a, an adduct
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 8980 –8984
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8981