Organic Letters
Letter
Scheme 4. Proposed Mechanism
alkene addition step can be traced through the final product
stereochemistry. If the reaction followed pathway (2) with the
iodine-catalyzed process, product 36 would be generated
(Figure 3). On the other hand, with pathway 1 of a copper-
catalyzed alkene addition process, the resulting product would
be 37. We directly compared the stereochemical outcome of
this reaction with the iodine-mediated reaction. In both cases,
we observed product 36 as the only diastereomer, suggesting
that the anti-addition process across the alkene is most likely
operative here. Therefore, our deuterium-labeled substrate
study here strongly supports iodine-promoted pathway (2).
To illustrate the nature of the carboxylate that underwent
the iodolactonization, we have conducted the reactions as
shown in Figure 4. When Cu(OTf)2 was used as the catalyst,
only 3% iodolactone product was observed. However, the
addition of 1 equiv of non-nucleophilic amine base,
diisopropylamine (DIPA), restored the capacity to conduct
the iodolactone formation. When Cu(OAc)2 was used as the
catalyst, no base was needed to generate the iodolactone
product in 65% yield. These data suggest that an initial ligand
exchange on the copper catalyst was necessary to facilitate the
copper catalyst turnover. Furthermore, a presynthesized
copper carboxylate 38 could also generate the iodolactone
product in 48% and 76% yields under both anaerobic and
aerobic conditions, respectively.30 These data, collectively,
suggest that the formation of copper carboxylate is crucial for
the reaction turnover in the iodolactonization process.
With all of this information, a summary for our proposed
mechanism is shown in Scheme 4. Oxidation of the iodide by
the Cu(II) catalyst generated the triiodide, which, in this case,
functions as an iodine reservoir for slow iodine release. Either
the copper or ammonium carboxylate then reacts with iodine
to produce iodolactone 39. Amine displacement of 39 then
affords amino lactone 40, which was also observed in the cases
for products 32−34. Subsequent lactam formation can occur
spontaneously to provide desired lactam product 3.31
Simultaneously, the reduced Cu(I) catalyst can undergo ligand
exchange to generate requisite Cu(I) carboxylate 41 for the
ensuing aerobic oxidation with the proton sources released
from the formation of the lactam. In this case, the aerobic
oxidation process not only regenerates the active Cu(II)
intermediate but also functions as an acid sponge to free up
more amine nucleophiles in the reaction (Scheme 4).
Discernible features of this dual catalytic approach include
the utilization of a triiodide−iodine equilibrium and a benign
oxidant (O2) with water as the byproduct.
Figure 5. Synthesis of Zamifenacin.
benzene backbone in the lactam ring was also tolerated with
good efficiency (Scheme 3, product 28). 4-Pentenoic acids
with 3-methyl, -phenyl, or -dimethyl substituents afforded the
lactam products in slightly diminished yields, presumably due
to increased steric demand during the lactam formation step
(Scheme 3, products 29−31). Notably, for products 29 and
30, excellent diastereoselectivities were observed. Initially, the
α-disubstituted 4-pentenoic acids proved to be challenging
substrates, producing the amino lactone intermediates in high
efficiency but with trace lactam formation. However, the
addition of AlMe3, as a Lewis acid in a second step, could
facilitate the intramolecular cyclization to generate the lactam
products in reasonable yields (Scheme 3, products 32−34).27
In this manner, interesting spirocyclic lactam structures,
containing both carbo- and heterocyclic motifs, can be
obtained. In addition, a fused bicyclic lactam product was
also produced smoothly with excellent diastereoselectivity
(Scheme 3, product 35).
We have conducted a number of experiments to gain further
insights into the reaction mechanism. First, the catalytic cycle
is initiated with a single-electron oxidation of the iodide to
triiodide, which was confirmed by our UV−vis studies by
mixing the copper(II) salt with KI (Figure 2). The equilibrium
between the triiodide and iodine simply functions as an iodine
“reservoir” that (1) minimizes the presence of iodine and (2)
maintains the copper catalyst at the Cu(I) oxidation state. This
phenomenon explains the origin of compatibility to all of the
nucleophiles present in the reaction. Meanwhile, the
carboxylate, either a copper carboxylate or ammonium
carboxylate, can proceed via two possible pathways: (1) a
copper-catalyzed syn oxycupration followed by iodine trap-
ping28 or (2) an anti iodolactonization with the in situ-
generated iodine at a low concentration. To understand the
alkene addition process, we synthesized deuterium-labeled
substrate A, a substrate commonly used to probe the syn or
anti nature of the alkene addition step based on stereochemical
analysis.29 Because the amination step is a stereoinvertive SN2
step and the intramolecular lactam formation has no bearing
on the stereochemical outcome, the stereochemistry of the
D
Org. Lett. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX