DOI: 10.1002/chem.201405888
Communication
&
Synthetic Methods
Iodine(III)-Catalyzed Rearrangements of Imides: A Versatile Route
to a,a-Dialkylated a-Hydroxy Carboxylamides
Anna Ulmer,[a] Maciej Stodulski,[b] Stefanie V. Kohlhepp,[a] Christoph Patzelt,[a]
Alexander Pçthig,[a] Wolfgang Bettray,[b] and Tanja Gulder*[a, b]
substituted-a-hydroxy carboxylamides 7, which can easily be
further modified to a wide range of important products. In ad-
Abstract: A tertiary hydroxy group a to a carboxyl moiety
comprises a key structural motif in many bioactive sub-
dition, experimental evidence for the formation of chemically
stances. With the herein presented metal-free rearrange-
ment of imides triggered by hypervalent l3-iodane, an
sensitive bromo-imine benziodoxolones 18 as active species is
provided for the first time.
easy and selective way to gain access to such a compound
As part of our research program aiming at the development
class, namely a,a-disubstituted-a-hydroxy carboxylamides,
of new catalytic halogenation methods, we showed that aryl
was established. Their additional methylene bromide side
amides 2 are converted easily into either the dibrominated
product 1[4] or the oxoindole 4,[5] depending on the structure
of the iodobenzamide catalyst (5 and 6; Scheme 1). Encour-
chain constitutes a useful handle for rapid diversification,
as demonstrated by a series of further functionalizations.
Moreover, the in situ formation of an iodine(III) species
under the reaction conditions was proven. Our findings
clearly corroborate that hypervalent l3-benziodoxolones
are involved in these organocatalytic reactions.
Hypervalent l3-iodanes have received huge attention over the
last years and proofed themselves as valuable and reliable or-
ganic alternatives to common transition-metal compounds
owing to their low toxicity and mild reactivity.[1] Besides their
application in simple electron-transfer reactions, iodine(III)
compounds have recently also entered other fields of organic
chemistry, in particular atom-transfer[1b–l] and rearrangement re-
actions.[2] In contrast to their broad synthetic potential, the use
of iodine(III) species, especially in large-scale processes, is still
rare. This discrepancy can be attributed to the low atom econ-
omy of iodine(III) reagents and their often low chemical stabili-
ty. The necessity to overcome this bottleneck of reagent-based
iodine(III) chemistry has fueled intense research in the develop-
ment of the catalytic utilization of these versatile com-
pounds.[1j,3] However, the search for selective external oxidants
turned out to be difficult and thus often limits the success of
iodine-catalyzed reactions.[3b] Herein, we describe the rear-
rangement of imides 3 catalyzed by o-iodobenzamides 6 and
N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) as the oxidant. This synthetic path-
way gives access to very useful building blocks, that is, a,a-di-
Scheme 1. Reaction scope of our iodine(III)-catalyzed transformations of aryl
amides. [a] A ratio of ꢀ1:3 (1/4) was observed.
aged by these results, we turned our focus towards the explo-
ration of the reaction scope of this catalytic system. We started
by replacing the N-alkyl moiety in 2 by an additional carboxyl
functionality, thus significantly changing the conformation of
the starting material.[6] To our surprise, imide 3a was converted
more rapidly (<5 min) than 2 under these conditions. Instead
of the expected oxoindole, the open a,a-disubstituted-a-hy-
droxy carboxyl amide 7a was isolated.
As these compounds comprise an intriguing but synthetical-
ly challenging scaffold, which can be found in many bioactive
natural products and medically important agents, such as the
anticancer drug bicalutamide (8), we set out to evaluate the
optimum reaction conditions by using imide 3b as a model
substrate (Table 1). By employing the standard conditions for
halocarbocyclization,[5,7] amide 7b was isolated in a very good
yield of 79% (entry 1). Control experiments without catalyst 6
[a] A. Ulmer, S. V. Kohlhepp, C. Patzelt, Dr. A. Pçthig, Dr. T. Gulder
Department Chemie and Catalysis Research Center (CRC)
Technische Universitꢀt Mꢁnchen
Lichtenbergstrasse 4, 85747 Garching (Germany)
[b] Dr. M. Stodulski, Dr. W. Bettray, Dr. T. Gulder
Institute of Organic Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University
Landoltweg 1, 52056 Aachen (Germany)
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/chem.201405888.
Chem. Eur. J. 2015, 21, 1444 – 1448
1444
ꢀ 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim