Cyclization of Homopropargyl Chalcogenides
FULL PAPER
Table 3. Influence of reaction conditions on the preparation of seleno-
On the one hand, these conditions were applicable to
both electron-donating (Table 2, entries 2–5) and electron-
withdrawing substituents (Table 2, entries 6 and 7) on the
aryl ring of homopropargyl selenides 1b–g. Besides, the re-
action yield does not seem to be strongly influenced by the
steric effect of the substituent, since ortho-substituted aro-
matic rings were compatible with the reaction conditions,
and the corresponding 2,3-dihydroselenophenes 2b,c were
obtained in very similar yields (Table 2, entries 2 and 3). On
the other hand, only 51% yield of product 2h was obtained
for the cyclization between homopropargyl selenide 1h
having an alkyl group directly attached to the triple bond,
where it may exert negative effects (Table 2, entry 8). o-Al-
kynylanisoles could undergo cyclization reaction in the pres-
ence of transition metal to afford benzofuran derivatives.[16]
Regarding selenium versus oxygen cyclization, we did not
obtain any amount of benzo[b]furan derivative, and the
unique product obtained during the course of this cycliza-
tion was selenophene derivative 2c (Table 2, entry 3). This
high selectivity can be attributed to the electronic effect
(the relative nucleophilicity of the selenium atom, the cati-
onic nature of the intermediate) and the resistance of the
methoxyl group to demethylation and ring closure.[17]
Aromatic halo heterocycles are versatile reagents in or-
ganic synthesis.[18] In particular, heterocycles such as halo-
chalcogenophenes are useful precursors for the synthesis of
a variety of more highly functionalized heterocyclic sys-
tems.[12] The most promising application of halochalcogeno-
phenes is copper/palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reac-
tions.[11] For example, palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling of
halo-chalcogenophenes with terminal alkynes has been
widely used in the synthesis of chalcogenophenes with phar-
macological activity, such as furans, thiophenes, seleno-
phenes, and tellurophenes.[19] Other applications of halo-
chalcogenophenes include palladium-catalyzed coupling re-
actions with organoboron compounds to give alkyl, aryl and
heteroaryl substituents at different positions of the chalcoge-
nophene.[20] Although a variety of reagents are effective in
performing the oxidation/aromatization of dihydroheterocy-
cles, some methods suffer from low chemical yields, strongly
oxidative conditions, unwieldy workup, or side-product for-
mation. Despite the disadvantages to this approach, recently
Chen and co-workers reported a powerful strategy for the
oxidation of 2,5-dihydroheterocycles using a bromine source
and obtained good results in aromatization.[21] In this ap-
proach, dihydroheterocycles were used as starting materials
for aromatization. To avoid multistep reactions, we envi-
sioned that the 3 and 4 (Figure 1) could be obtained by a
one-pot cyclization/aromatization sequence of homopro-
pargyl selenides, under similar conditions to those used for
the preparation of 2a in Table 1, entry 9. For this purpose,
we treated, under ambient atmosphere, homopropargyl sele-
nide 1a (0.25 mmol) with CuBr2 (2 equiv) in refluxing 1,2-di-
chloroethane (2 mL). The 3-bromo-2-phenylselenophene 4a
(7% yield) was obtained besides dehalogenated seleno-
phene 3a, derived from cyclization/aromatization without
incorporation of the bromine atom (Table 3, entry 1). This
phenes 3a and 4a.[a]
CuBr2 [equiv]
Solvent
Yield of 3a:4a [%]
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
2
4
4
2
4
4
DCE
45:7
20:42
–:60
–:58
–:50
–:65
–:86
toluene[b]
DCE
toluene[b]
DMF[b]
DMF[b]
DMA[b]
[a] Reactions were performed with 1a (0.5 mmol) and solvent (4 mL) at
reflux temperature under air. [b] A temperature of 1008C was used.
result is significant since we obtained a further class of chal-
cogenophenes by using similar reaction conditions. With this
result in hand, we studied the behavior of the cyclization/ox-
idation reaction by varying solvents, temperature, and
amount of copper(II) bromide (Table 3, entries 2–7). When
the reaction was carried out in toluene, 4a was obtained in
42% yield, along with 20% yield of 3a (Table 3, entry 2).
When the reaction was performed with 4 equiv of CuBr2 in
1,2-dichloroethane the desired selenophene 4a was obtained
in 60% yield with complete absence of 3a (Table 3, entry 3).
No remarkable increase in the yield of the product was ob-
served on keeping 4 equiv of CuBr2 and changing the sol-
vent from 1,2-dichloroethane to toluene or DMF (Table 3,
entries 4–6). The use of dimethylacetamide as solvent with
4 equiv of CuBr2 at 1008C was superior to other conditions
tested (Table 3, entry 7) that either promoted the formation
of 3-bromoselenophene 4a in the best yield or avoided the
formation of 3a. Under the reaction conditions shown in
Table 3, homopropargyl selenides 1a and 2 equiv of CuBr2
under ambient atmosphere in 1,2-dichloroethane at reflux
gave preferably selenophene 3a, whereas using 4 equiv of
CuBr2 in dimethylacetamide at 1008C gave exclusively the
3-bromoselenophene 4a.
We systematically applied the conditions of entries 1 and
7 in Table 3 to other substituted homopropargyl selenides 1
to test the tolerance for functional groups and their effects
on the conversion. For preparation of selenophenes 3, aryl
groups having neutral and electron-donating substituents
gave the worst yields of 45 and 65% compared to the sub-
stituent having electron-withdrawing groups which afforded
the cyclized products in 75 and 70% yield (Scheme 1).
Beside the synthesis of 2-substituted selenophenes 3, a
series of 3-halo 2-substituted selenophenes 4 and 5 was also
prepared (Table 4). For the preparation of 3-bromo-seleno-
phene 4, we observed that the reaction yield does not seem
to be strongly influenced by the electronic effect of the sub-
stituent, since different aryl groups having neutral, electron-
withdrawing, and electron-donating groups in the aromatic
rings were compatible with the reaction conditions, and
yielded the corresponding selenophenes 4a–g without any
Chem. Eur. J. 2013, 19, 13059 – 13064
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13061