DOI: 10.1002/chem.201500466
Communication
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Gold Catalysis
Gold(I)-Catalyzed Selective Heterocyclization of Propargylic
Thioureas: Mechanistic Study of Competitive Gold-Activation
Mode
Yu Jiang,[a] Yin Wei,[b] Xiang-Ying Tang,*[b] and Min Shi*[a, b]
Abstract: A new selective gold(I)-catalyzed intramolecular
heterocyclization of propargylic thioureas has been devel-
oped, efficiently affording two kinds of cycloadducts in
moderate to excellent yields with a broad substrate scope.
Further mechanistic investigations indicate that competi-
tive different gold activation modes feature in these cycli-
zation processes. Kinetic experiments reveal that the gold
activation mode is influenced by the ligand of the gold
catalyst and the reaction conditions.
Gold(I)-catalyzed activation of multiple bonds, for example,
carbon–carbon triple bonds, has attracted much attention and
has also witnessed significant developments within the past
decade.[1] Recently, mechanistic investigation of the activation
modes of these reactions has emerged at the forefront of cur-
rent research. Several activation modes have been proposed to
date (Scheme 1), by the groups of Toste, Zhang, and Hashmi:
Scheme 1. Gold activation modes.
a) The p-activation mode (Scheme 1a), in which alkyne moiet-
ies are first activated by p-coordination with the gold catalyst
and then accept the attack of nucleophiles, is well-established
and accepted in gold catalysis; b) the dual s,p-activation con-
cept[2–7] was first proposed by Toste, Houk et al.[3a] Later, the
groups of Hashmi[4] and Zhang[5] independently discovered
a new dual gold activation mode in the cyclization of diynes,
whereby one alkyne moiety is activated by p-coordination,
while the other is activated by s-coordination (Scheme 1b);
c) more recently, Hashmi reported the s-activation mode,[8]
whereby the alkyne moiety is activated by s-coordination to
the gold catalyst (gold–acetylide), increasing the nucleophilici-
ty of the b-carbon atom (Scheme 1c). The field of gold cataly-
sis chemistry has been significantly enriched by knowledge of
these three modes of gold activation. However, to our knowl-
edge, few examples to date concern ligand-controlled gold ac-
tivation.[12g]
Alkynyl compounds bearing amide,[9,10] carbamate,[11] or
urea[12,13] functional groups have been extensively investigated
in gold-catalyzed intramolecular cyclizations.[14] Because of the
multiple nucleophilic atoms in the aforementioned functional
groups, they are excellent candidates to explore the different
cyclization pathways and activation modes involved in gold
catalysis. In 2013, the Asensio and co-workers[12g] reported that
(o-ethynylaryl)ureas could selectively undergo either 6-exo-dig
or 5-endo-dig cyclization (both N-attack) to give different cyclo-
adducts depending on the choice of gold(I) catalyst. Herein,
we report our findings on the gold catalyzed selective hetero-
cyclization of propargylic thioureas, affording N- or S-cycload-
ducts (N-attack or S-attack) from different cyclization pathways
due to the different activation modes governed by the ligands
and the reaction conditions (Scheme 2).
[a] Y. Jiang, Prof. Dr. M. Shi
Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Institute of Fine Chemicals
East China University of Science and Technology
Meilong Road No. 130, Shanghai, 200237 (P.R. China)
We initially utilized 3-isothiocyanato-1-methyl-3-(prop-2-yn-
yl)indolin-2-one 1a (0.10 mmol, 1.0 equiv) and benzylamine 2a
(0.12 mmol, 1.2 equiv) as the substrates by carrying out the re-
action in toluene in the presence of [PPh3AuCl]/AgOTf
(10 mol%) at 508C to examine the reaction outcome (Table 1).
The corresponding N-attack cycloadduct 3aa and S-attack cy-
cloadduct 4aa were obtained in 25% and 45% yields, respec-
[b] Dr. Y. Wei, Prof. Dr. X.-Y. Tang, Prof. Dr. M. Shi
State Key Laboratory of Organometallic Chemistry
Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences
345 Lingling Road, Shanghai, 200032 (P.R. China)
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/chem.201500466.
Chem. Eur. J. 2015, 21, 1 – 8
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ꢀ 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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