Angewandte
Communications
Chemie
Supported Catalysts
Silica-Supported Silver Nitrate as a Highly Active Dearomatizing
Spirocyclization Catalyst: Synergistic Alkyne Activation by Silver
Nanoparticles and Silica
Aimee K. Clarke, Michael J. James, Peter OꢀBrien, Richard J. K. Taylor,* and
William P. Unsworth*
Abstract: Silica-supported AgNO (AgNO –SiO ) catalyzes
3
3
2
the dearomatizing spirocyclization of alkyne-tethered aromat-
ics far more effectively than the analogous unsupported
reagent; in many cases, reactions which fail using unsupported
AgNO3 proceed effectively with AgNO –SiO . Mechanistic
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2
studies indicate that this is a consequence of silver nanoparticle
formation on the silica surface combined with a synergistic
effect caused by the silica support itself. The remarkable ease
with which the reagent can be prepared and used is likely to be
of much synthetic importance, in particular, by making nano-
particle catalysis more accessible to non-specialists.
Figure 1. AgNO –SiO mediated dearomatizing spirocyclization.
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[7–9]
as catalysts previously,
but to the best of our knowledge,
P
ioneered in the 1960s, silica-supported AgNO (AgNO –
the catalytic role of Ag-NPs formed while supporting silver
salts on silica has not been documented. In this paper, we
highlight AgNO –SiO as an easily prepared and highly active
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SiO ) is well-known for its use as a support in the separation
2
[1]
of E- and Z-alkenes by column chromatography. However,
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the synthetic potential of AgNO –SiO as a catalyst has been
catalyst for dearomatizing spirocyclizations (Figure 1), show-
casing the methodology with the AgNO –SiO -mediated
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mostly over-looked, with just a handful of reports on its use as
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2
[
2]
a reagent in organic synthesis. To the best of our knowledge,
examples are limited to syntheses of 5-membered hetero-
synthesis of 23.6 g of a spirocycle in a simple continuous
flow set-up. Furthermore, our mechanistic finding of the
synergistic alkyne activation by Ag-NPs and silica provides
a new alkyne activation pathway that could have much
synthetic scope for alkyne functionalization.
[
2a]
cycles from alkynes and allenes, reported by Marshall and
[
2b,c]
Knight.
spirocyclization reactions,
catalytic potential of AgNO –SiO due to its limited previous
As part of a wider program on dearomatizing
[
3,4]
we decided to investigate the
To start, we examined the conversion of ynone 1a into
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[
10]
use in synthesis and with the intention of exploiting the
spirocyclic indolenine 2a.
Commercial AgNO –SiO (10
3 2
[5]
practical benefits of using a solid-supported reagent. To our
surprise, we found that AgNO –SiO offers vastly superior
wt% AgNO on silica) was found to effect this transformation
3
[11]
with reasonable efficiency, and following additional opti-
mization (see Supporting Information) it was discovered that
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2
reactivity compared with unsupported AgNO in dearomatiz-
3
[
3]
[12]
ing spirocyclization reactions of alkyne-tethered hetero-
“home-made” AgNO –SiO with a reduced AgNO loading
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2
3
[
4]
aromatics of the type shown in Figure 1.
of 1 wt% was an even more effective catalyst; stirring ynone
Of much significance, several dearomatization reactions
1a at RT in CH Cl with catalytic (1 mol%) 1 wt% AgNO –
2
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3
that previously failed with unsupported AgNO can now be
SiO led to the formation of spirocycle 2a in 98% isolated
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carried out in high yield with the AgNO –SiO catalyst. These
yield in 30 minutes (Scheme 1, conditions A). Interestingly,
this is significantly faster than the same reaction with
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unexpected findings prompted a mechanistic investigation
which ultimately, via the combined use of in situ infrared
spectroscopy (via ReactIR) and TEM, implicated a key role
[
4a]
unsupported AgNO3 (6 h, conditions B).
Even more
dramatic differences were seen in the reactions of ynones
tethered to other aromatics; phenol 3a, pyrrole 5a and
benzofuran 7 were reacted with both catalyst systems, and
while spirocyclic products 4a, 6a, and 8 were isolated in high
yields when 1 wt% AgNO –SiO was used, AgNO alone led
[
6]
for silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) formed during the prep-
aration of AgNO –SiO together with a synergistic effect from
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2
the silica support itself. Pre-prepared Ag-NPs have been used
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2
3
[
13,14]
to no reaction in all three cases (Scheme 1).
[*] A. K. Clarke, M. J. James, Prof. P. O’Brien, Prof. R. J. K. Taylor,
In view of these marked differences, a mechanistic study
was initiated. We first monitored the conversion of ynone 1a
into spirocycle 2a with in situ infrared spectroscopy (via
ReactIR), using the decrease in intensity of the CꢀC stretch
Dr. W. P. Unsworth
University of York
York, YO10 5DD (UK)
E-mail: richard.taylor@york.ac.uk
À1
of ynone 1a (2208 cm ) to monitor reaction progress. Using
1
mol% of the 1 wt% AgNO –SiO catalyst, ynone 1a was
3 2
converted into spirocycle 2a in 30 min (blue line, A, Figure 2),
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 1 – 6
ꢀ 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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