Journal of the American Chemical Society
Page 4 of 5
rans.28 Finally, the DG in the products can be easily re-
moved through zinc-mediated N−O bond cleavage (Eqs
2 and 3).16
Sanford, M. S. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 9542. (c) Giri, R.; Liang,
J.; Lei, J. G.; Li, J. J.; Wang, D. H.; Chen, X.; Naggar, I. C.; Guo, C.;
Foxman, B. M.; Yu, J.-Q. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2005, 44, 7420.
(6) Desai, L. V.; Malik, H. A.; Sanford, M. S. Org. Lett. 2006, 8,
1141.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
In summary, we developed a Pd-catalyzed masked al-
cohol-directed site-selective C−H annulation approach,
which provides rapid access to a variety of cyclic ethers
of different ring sizes. The oxidative cyclization
chemoselectively occurs at an inert terminal position,
thus complementary to other existing ether-synthesis
methods. The reaction can tolerate air and moisture, and
is operationally simple. Free primary, secondary, tertiary
alcohols, and even protected alcohols, can be employed
as the internal nucleophile, suggesting a promising sub-
strate scope. In particular, the feasibility of directly us-
ing benzyl ethers as the coupling partner should have a
broad implication (e.g. use of masked nucleophiles) be-
yond this work. Detailed mechanistic study and expan-
sion of the reaction scope to methylene C−H bonds and
other internal nucleophiles are under investigation in our
laboratory.
(7) (a) Wang, X.; Lu, Y.; Dai, H.-X.; Yu, J.-Q. J. Am. Chem. Soc.
2010, 132, 12203; (b) Wang, H.; Li, G.; Engle, K. M.; Yu, J.-Q.;
Davies, H. M. L. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 6774.
(8) Xiao, B.; Gong, T.-J.; Liu, Z.-J.; Liu, J.-H.; Luo, D.-F.; Xu, J.;
Liu, L. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 9250.
(9) Wei, Y.; Yoshikai, N. Org. Lett. 2011, 13, 5504.
(10) (a) Wang, G.-W.; Yuan, T.-T. J. Org. Chem. 2010, 75, 476;
(b) Jiang, T.-S.; Wang, G.-W. J. Org. Chem. 2012, 77, 9504.
(11) (a) Li, W.; Sun, P. J. Org. Chem. 2012, 77, 8362; (b) Péron,
F.; Fossey, C.; Sopkova-de Oliveira Santos, J.; Cailly, T.; Fabis, F.
Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20, 7507; (c) Shi, S.; Kuang, C. J. Org. Chem.
2014, 79, 6105; (d) Zhang, C.; Sun, P. J. Org. Chem. 2014, 79, 8457.
(12) For a review, see: Liu, B.; Shi, B.-F. Tetrahedron Lett. 2015,
56, 15.
(13) For alkoxylation of benzylic C−H bonds, see: ref 5b and (a)
Bhadra, S.; Matheis, C.; Katayev, D.; Gooßen, L. J. Angew. Chem.,
Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 9279. (b) Takemura, N.; Kuninobu, Y.; Kanai, M.
Org. Biomol. Chem. 2014, 12, 2528.
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
(14) Zhang, S.-Y.; He, G.; Zhao, Y.; Wright, K.; Nack, W. A.;
Chen, G. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 7313.
(15) (a) Chen, F.-J.; Zhao, S.; Hu, F.; Chen, K.; Zhang, Q.; Zhang,
S.-Q.; Shi, B.-F. Chem. Sci. 2013, 4, 4187. (b) Shan, G.; Yang, X.;
Zong, Y.; Rao, Y. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 13606.
(16) (a) Ren, Z.; Mo, F.; Dong, G. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134,
16991; (b) Ren, Z.; Schulz, J. E.; Dong, G. Org. Lett. 2015, 17, 2696.
For a review, see: Mo, F.; Tabor, J. R.; Dong, G. Chem. Lett. 2014,
43, 264.
(17) ref 5b and Neufeldt, S. R.; Sanford, M. S. Org. Lett. 2010, 12,
532.
(18) Dobereiner, G. E.; Crabtree, R. H. Chem. Rev. 2010, 110, 681.
(19) The reaction was accompanied by 13% byproduct through
esterification of the alcohol with HOAc.
(20) (a) Beesley, R. M.; Ingold, C. K.; Thorpe, J. F. J. Chem. Soc.,
Trans. 1915, 107, 1080; (b) Jung, M. E.; Piizzi, G. Chem. Rev. 2005,
105, 1735.
(21) Attempts to form 8-membered cyclic ethers using similar
substrates were unsuccessful under these reaction conditions.
(22) The syn diol substrate is expected to have a lower activation
energy than the anti one. For a proposed model, see:
ASSOCIATED CONTENT
Supporting Information. Experimental procedures; spec-
tral data. This material is available free of charge via the
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*gbdong@cm.utexas.edu
Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to thank CPRIT for start-up funding, the
Welch Foundation (F-1781), and ACS PRF for research
grants. G.D. is a Searle Scholar and Sloan Fellow. Dr.
Lynch and Ms. Spangenberg are acknowledged respective-
ly for X-ray crystallography and NMR advice. Mr. Yan Xu
is acknowledged for the discovery of benzyl ether nucleo-
phile. Mr. Zhongxing Huang is thanked for checking the
experiments. We also thank Johnson Matthey for a gener-
ous donation of palladium salts.
(23) For recent reviews see: (a) Burkhard, J. A.; Wuitschik, G.;
Rogers-Evans, M.; Müller, K.; Carreira, E. M. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.
2010, 49, 9052; (b) Wuitschik, G.; Carreira, E. M.; Wagner, B.;
Fischer, H.; Parrilla, I.; Schuler, F.; Rogers-Evans, M.; Müller, K. J.
Med. Chem. 2010, 53, 3227.
(24) For a recent review on Taxol synthesis, see: Urabe, D.; Asaba,
T.; Inoue, M. Chem. Rev. 2015 DOI: 10.1021/cr500716f.
(25) Other diastereomers of the alcohol substrate were unsuccessful
in the cyclization reaction.
(26) For representative studies of SN2-type reductive elimination on
Pd(IV) intermediates, see: (a) Liu, G.; Stahl, S. S. J. Am. Chem. Soc.
2006, 128, 7179; (b) Racowski, J. M.: Gary, J. B.; Sanford M. S.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 3412; (c) Camasso, N. M.; Pérez-
Temprano, M. H.; Sanford, M. S. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136,
12771.
(27) Choong, I. C.; Ellman, J. A. J. Org. Chem. 1999, 64, 6528.
(28) (a) Wolfe, J. P.; Hay, M. B. Tetrahedron 2007, 63, 261; (b)
Synthesis of Saturated Oxygenated Heterocycles I; 1 ed.; Springer-
Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2014.
REFERENCES
(1) (a) Lorente, A.; Lamariano-Merketegi, J.; Albericio, F.;
Álvarez, M. Chem. Rev. 2013, 113, 4567; (b) The Organic Chemistry
of Drug Design and Drug Action (Third Edition); Holladay, R. B. S.
W., Ed.; Academic Press: Boston, 2014.
(2) (a) Mitsunobu, O. Comprehensive Organic Synthesis; Fleming,
I.; Trost, B. M. Ed.; Pergamon: Oxford, 1991, p 1; (b) Smith, M. B.;
March, J. Advanced Organic Chemistry; Wiley Interscience: New
York, 2001, p 479.
(3) (a) Majetich, G.; Wheless, K. Tetrahedron 1995, 51, 7095; (b)
Čeković, Ž. J. Serb. Chem. Soc. 2005, 70, 287.
(4) Ammann, S. E.; Rice, G. T.; White, M. C. J. Am. Chem. Soc.
2014, 136, 10834.
(5) For seminal works: (a) Dick, A. R.; Hull, K. L.; Sanford, M. S.
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 2300; (b) Desai, L. V.; Hull, K. L.;
ACS Paragon Plus Environment