Carbonyl-assisted reverse regioselective cascade annulation of 2-acetylenic ketones triggered by Ru-catalyzed C-H activation

Abstract

The first reverse regioselective intermolecular annulation of aryl substituted 2-acetylenic ketones with O-substituted N-hydroxybenzamides or acrylamides followed by tandem cyclization via ruthenium-catalyzed C-H activation, is reported. Excellent reverse selectivity of alkyne insertion was induced by the weak coordination between the carbonyl group and ruthenium complex. This highly efficient and practical reaction has a broad range of substrate scope with excellent functional-group tolerance. The tandem reaction provides a wide range of polycyclic products that have an indozilidine structural motif, and are found to potentially be synthetically and pharmaceutically valuable.