1
024
S. Khaksar, H. Radpeyma / C. R. Chimie 17 (2014) 1023–1027
Table 1
et al. have found that gallium(III) triflate can catalyze
successfully the reactions of phenylene-1,2-diamines and
Effects of the amount of catalyst PFPAT used and of the solvent on the
formation of 3.
1
,2-diketones under mild conditions [38]. This method was
Entry
PFPAT amount
Condition/
solvent
Time
suitable for a wide range of substrates, and especially for
functionalized phenylene-1,2-diamines. Yadav et al. have
reported a one-pot synthesis of phenylene-1,2-diamine
derivatives by cyclocondensation of arene-1,2-diamines
with 1,2-dicarbonyls using a catalytic amount of bis-
muth(III) triflate [39]. The use of water as a solvent makes
this procedure attractive and environmentally benign.
However, realizing the fact that metal-free organocatalysis
has drawn considerable interest from chemists, and that
metal-free homogeneous catalysis is advantageous for
designing suitable drugs devoid of any metal content, it
would be desirable to develop this reaction using metal-
free Lewis acid catalysts [40].
(mol%)
(h)/yield
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
5
rt/H
rt/H
rt/H
2
O
2
O
2
O
6/30
5/80
1/95
5/10
5/20
5/60
5/10
10/10
1/95
10
10
10
10
10
10
20
2 2
rt/CH Cl
rt/THF
rt/ethanol
rt/toluene
rt/diethyl ether
2
rt/H O
product 3 in 95% yield (Table 1, entry 3). Increasing either
the amount of catalyst and/or prolonging the reaction time
did not improve the yield (Table 1, entry 9), while
reducing these factors led to a reduction in the product
10 mol% of PFPAT was optimum for this reaction and gave
a product in 95% yield in just 1 h (Table 1, entry 3). The
reaction was also examined in solvents such as toluene,
Catalysis with small organic molecules, where an
inorganic element is not part of the active principle, has
become a highly dynamic area in chemical research [41].
Such catalysts have several important advantages, since
they are usually robust, highly reactive, eco-friendly,
inexpensive, readily available, and non-toxic [42–44]. As
an inexpensive and commercially available organocatalyst,
+
–
pentafluorophenylammonium triflate (C
6
F
5
N H
3
*TfO ;
2 2
THF, CH Cl , ethanol, and diethyl ether. When the reaction
PFPAT) has received increasing attention as a water-
tolerant Brønsted acid catalyst for organic synthesis
demonstrating highly chemo-, regio- and stereoselective
results [45–47]. Due to the current challenges for
developing environmentally benign synthetic processes
and in continuation of our interest in the application of
new organocatalysts for various organic transformations
was carried out in the presence of PFPAT in water, the
expected product (3a) was obtained in high yield (95%) and
with better reaction times compared with other organic
solvents (Table 1, entries 3–8). With non-polar diethyl
ether and toluene, the desired adduct was not produced.
Moreover, when the reaction was carried out in water, the
solid product was separated at the end of the reaction.
At the beginning of the reaction, the reagents itself
were dissolved completely in the medium to form a
homogeneous mixture (Fig. 1a), but near the completion of
the reaction, the system became a suspension, and the
product precipitated at the end of the reaction (Fig. 1b).
The products were obtained through simple filtering,
and recrystallized from hot ethanol to afford pure
products. The corresponding functionalized quinoxa-
lines-scaffolds 3a, shown in Table 1 and confirmed by
NMR measurements, were obtained in good yield (95%).
Further experiments revealed that a similar procedure
is applicable for the preparation of a wide range of
[
48–53], we report an efficient route for the synthesis of
quinoxaline derivatives using pentafluorophenylammo-
nium triflate (PFPAT) as a catalyst (Scheme 1).
2
. Results and discussion
In order to optimize the reaction conditions, we chose
the condensation of the reaction of benzil (1 mmol) with o-
phenylenediamine catalyzed by PFPAT under different
conditions both in the absence and in the presence of
PFPAT; the results are given in Table 1. It is noteworthy
that in the absence of the catalyst, the reaction was rather
sluggish in water and resulted in very low yields (20–35%)
of quinoxalines, even after long reaction times (Table 1,
entry 1). Then, the effects of temperature, the amount of
catalyst, and the reaction time on the yield of the product
were examined. Reaction at room temperature in water in
the presence of 30 mg (10 mol%) PFPAT afforded the
Ph
Ph
O
O
NH2
NH2
Ph
Ph
N
N
PFPAT (10 mol %)
+
R
H O, r.t, 1 h
2
R
1
2
F
F
3a-p
H
N
-
+
PFPAT: CF SO
H
3
F
3
H
F
F
Scheme 1. Synthesis of 2,3-disubstituted quinoxalines derivatives in
Fig. 1. (Color online.) (a) Homogeneous mixture during the reaction, and
water.
(b) at the end of the reaction; the product has precipitated.