K. Gopalaiah and R. Choudhary
Tetrahedron xxx (xxxx) xxx
equiv of benzylamine, 10 mol % Fe(OTf)2 at 120 ꢀC under O2 at-
mosphere for 24 h.
OLEDs [24], respectively.
To construct unsymmetrical 2,4,6-trisubstituted pyridines with
different groups at 2- and 6-positions, we carried out the reaction
of two different alkynes, namely, 1-chloro-4-ethynylbenzene and
1-ethynyl-4-methylbenzene, with benzylamine under the standard
reaction conditions (Scheme 2). It gave a mixture of three products
3q, 3c and 3j, which are separated and characterised by spectro-
scopic techniques.
Next, we examined the reactions of 1a with various substituted
benzylamines (Table 3). The benzylamines bearing electron-
donating groups (methyl, iso-propyl, methoxy, phenyl) and
electron-withdrawing substituents (fluoro, chloro, bromo) on the
aryl ring were proceeded well to give the desired products in good
yields (4a-4i). The substituents at different positions (para, meta or
ortho positions) on the arene ring of benzylamine did not much
affect the reaction efficiency (4a-4c). It is noteworthy that the
halogen-substituted benzylamines tolerated well, leading to
halogen-substituted 2,4,6-triarylpyridines (4g-4i), which could be
used further in various classical metal-catalyzed cross-coupling
reactions. Besides, the method was equally effective for strong
electron-withdrawing trifluoromethyl groups containing amine,
namely, 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)benzylamine to give the corre-
sponding product 4j in 71% yield under the standard reaction
conditions. Furthermore, piperonylamine also smoothly under-
went the oxidative reaction to furnish the desired product in good
With the established reaction conditions in hand, we first
evaluated the scope of alkynes bearing different aromatic and
heteroaromatic rings (Table 2). As illustrated, the phenylacetylenes
containing electron-withdrawing groups such as fluoro, chloro and
bromo at the para or meta positions of the phenyl ring were effi-
ciently reacted with benzylamine, affording the desired products
with good yields (3b-3e). The phenylacetylenes containing ester
group also gave the pyridine products 3f-3g albeit in low yields, but
nitro substrate namely 1-ethynyl-4-nitrobenzene failed to afford
the desired product. Phenylacetylenes bearing electron-donating
groups such as methyl, hydroxy, methoxy functionalities at the
ortho, meta or para positions also smoothly underwent the oxida-
tive cascade reaction to furnish the corresponding products in good
yields (3h-3l). Electron-rich disubstituted and trisubstituted phe-
nylacetylenes also furnished the desired products 3m and 3n in 89%
and 86% yields, respectively. Additionally, the heteroaryl-
substituted alkynes also served as suitable reacting partners to
offer good yields, as exemplified by 3o and 3p. Unfortunately, 1-
hexyne and 1-decyne failed to give the desired products. It is
noteworthy to mention that the synthesized products 3d, 3j, 3o and
3p are useful building blocks for the preparation of photo-
luminescence polymers [21], liquid crystalline polymers [22], 4-
arylpyridines [23], and conjugated polymer chemosensors and
Table 3
Fe(OTf)2-catalyzed oxidative cascade reaction of 1a with benzylamines 2a,b
.
4