Journal of the American Chemical Society
Article
a
stoichiometric SmI2, and various efficient SmI2-mediated
reductive coupling reactions have been developed.7 Recently,
great progress in photocatalytic proton-coupled electron
transfer (PCET)8 has evoked a new round of exploration on
the generation of ketyl radicals.9,10 In 2013, Knowles and co-
workers reported for the first time the photoredox-catalyzed
formation of ketyl radical intermediates by means of a PCET,
which enabled the catalytic ketyl−olefin coupling.9b In
addition, this visible-light-induced intermolecular reductive
ketyl−olefin coupling reaction10 was also elegantly demon-
strated by Chen10a and Ngai,10b successively, where the
formation of ketyl radicals from a single electron reduction was
involved. Although significant advances have been achieved,
these reactions generally rely on the use of the ketyl radical-
generation activators such as Lewis acids, Brønsted acids, in
situ-generated Brønsted acids, and others,9d and examples of
the relevant ketyl−alkyne coupling reaction are quite scarce.11
Ynamides have become prevalent in organic synthesis and
have attracted much attention in the past decades.12
Surprisingly, radical-mediated ynamide transformations have
been rarely explored but are certainly highly desirable.13
Inspired by the above results and our recent study on the
ynamide chemistry in heterocycle synthesis,14 we envisioned
that the intramolecular photoredox-catalyzed ketyl−ynamide
coupling of aryl sulfonyl-substituted ynamides might generate
the vinyl radical species, which would undergo further
desulfonylated Smiles rearrangement, eventually leading to 2-
benzhydrylindoles (Scheme 1b). Herein, we report the
successful implementation of such a photoredox-catalyzed
ketyl−ynamide coupling-triggered desulfonylated Smiles re-
arrangement, and a rare radical attack at the α position of
ynamide is involved.12d,13 Importantly, this protocol represents
the first radical Smiles rearrangement based on ynamides. The
reaction affords a variety of 2-benzhydrylindoles with broad
substrate scope in generally good yields. Moreover, this
chemistry can also be extended to the divergent synthesis of
versatile 3-benzhydrylisoquinolines via similar tandem ketyl−
ynamide coupling/Smiles rearrangement followed by dehydro-
genative oxidation. Notably, 2-benzhydrylindoles and 3-
benzhydrylisoquinolines are important heterocycles found in
various bioactive molecules (Figure 1).15,16 In addition, such
Table 1. Optimization of Reaction Conditions
yield
b
entry
photocatalyst
reaction conditions
(%)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
[Ir(ppy)2(dtbbpy)]PF6
[Ir(ppy)2(dtbbpy)]PF6
[Ir(ppy)2(dtbbpy)]PF6
[Ir(ppy)2(dtbbpy)]PF6
[Ir(ppy)2(dtbbpy)]PF6
[Ir(ppy)2(dtbbpy)]PF6
[Ir(ppy)2(dtbbpy)]PF6
[lr(ppy)2(dtbbpy)]PF6
MeOH, rt, 4 h
i-PrOH, rt, 4 h
1,4-dioxane, rt, 4 h
MeCN, rt, 4 h
DMSO, rt, 4 h
DMA, rt, 2 h
64
53
57
56
63
62
9
72
60
50
57
41
70
42
15
DME, rt, 2 h
DMF, rt, 4 h
9
[Ir(dF(CF)3 ppy)2(dtbbpy)]PF6 DMF, rt, 2 h
10
11
12
13
14
15
fac-Ir(ppy)3
Ru(bpy)3(PF6)2
Ru(bpy)3Cl2
4CzIPN
[Ir(ppy)2(dtbbpy)]PF6
DMF, rt, 2 h
DMF, rt, 4 h
DMF, rt, 4 h
DMF, rt, 4 h
DMF, rt, 4 h
DMF, rt, 4 h
c
a
Reaction conditions: 1a (0.1 mmol), Hantzsch ester (0.4 mmol),
photocatalyst (0.001 mmol), solvent (1 mL), rt, 2−4 h, N2; 30 W blue
LED is used, and the distance between the light source and the
b
Schlenk tubes is about 3 cm. Measured by 1H NMR using Hantzsch
c
ester and Hantzsch pyridine as internal standard. A 3 equiv amount
of Hantzsch ester was used.
Hantzsch ester as the reductant in the presence of 1 mol % of
[Ir(ppy)2(dtbbpy)]PF6 as the photocatalyst in MeOH at room
temperature in 4 h afforded the desired 2-benzhydrylindole 2a
in 64% yield (Table 1, entry 1). Further solvent screening
(Table 1, entries 2−8) revealed that the use of DMF as solvent
led to the formation of the desired 2a in 72% yield (Table 1,
entry 8). In addition, other iridium- and ruthenium-based
photocatalysts were also investigated but failed to improve the
reaction (Table 1, entries 9−12). Of note, the reaction could
also furnish the desired 2a in 70% yield by employing 4CzIPN
as photoredox catalyst, which represents a metal-free photo-
redox catalysis (Table 1, entry 13).17 However, low efficiency
was observed (<30%) catalyzed by other organic dyes such as
Eosin Y and Fluorescein. The use of 3 equiv of Hantzsch ester
led to a significantly decreased yield (Table 1, entry 14).
Finally, it was found that 2a could be obtained in 15% yield in
Figure 1. 2-Benzhydrylindoles and 3-benzhydrylisoquinolines in
bioactive molecules.
an ynamide Smiles rearrangement initiated by intermolecular
photoredox catalysis via addition of external radical sources is
also achieved. In this article, we report the results of our
detailed investigations of this radical cascade cyclization,
including the substrate scope, synthetic applications, and
mechanistic studies.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
■
Optimization of Reaction Conditions. At the outset,
benzoyl ynamide 1a was used as the model substrate to react
with commercial Hantzsch ester under photocatalysis (Table
1). To our delight, treatment of substrate 1a with 4 equiv of
3637
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 3636−3644