1,4-Disubstituted and 1,4,5-trisubstituted 2-[(benzotriazol-1-yl)methyl]pyrroles as versatile synthetic intermediates

Abstract

The CH2Bt substituent, unlike previously used CH2X substituents, enables (i) the synthetic elaboration of pyrroles with unsubstituted ring positions and (ii) electrophilic as well as nucleophilic substitutions to give pyrroles of type pyrrolyl-2-CHENu. Thus, 1,4-disubstituted (7) and 1,4,5-trisubstituted 2-[(benzotriazol-1-yl)methyl]pyrroles (15) were easily prepared from the reaction of 5-(benzotriazol-1-yl)-1,2-epoxy-3-pentynes 4 or 14 with primary amines in i-PrOH. The 2-(benzotriazol-1-yl)methyl side chains of compounds 7 and 15 were elaborated by nucleophilic substitution and also by initial alkylation followed by replacement or elimination of the benzotriazolyl moiety to afford a variety of 1,2,4-trisubstituted (6, 8-9, 11-13) and 1,2,4,5-tetrasubstituted pyrroles (18, 20-22).