Gold-catalyzed naphthalene functionalization

• Pedro J. Pérez,
• M. Mar Díaz-Requejo and
• Iván Rivilla

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2011, 7, 653–657, doi:10.3762/bjoc.7.77

• a 1:1 mixture of IPrMCl (M = Cu, 1a; M = Au, 1b) and NaBAr'4, the diazo compound was consumed after 24 h at 60 °C (no significant reaction was observed at room temperature or at 40 °C). NMR analysis of the crude reaction product revealed that when 1a was used as the catalyst, only one compound was

• selectivity observed is similar to that reported by Müller's group with [Rh2(O2CC3F7)4] (60:22:18) [8]. However, in our case the yield of products (EDA-based) was quantitative: products derived from dimerization of the diazo compound, i.e., diethyl fumarate and maleate, were not detected. The absence of the

• % with respect to the diazo compound). Similarly to the previous results, the fused norcaradiene 3a (Scheme 5) was exclusively and quantitatively formed using the copper catalyst 1a, whilst the use of 1b afforded a mixture of three products in a 60:20:20 ratio. The major product was identified as the 3a

Sequential Au(I)-catalyzed reaction of water with o-acetylenyl-substituted phenyldiazoacetates

• Lei Zhou,
• Yizhou Liu,
• Yan Zhang and
• Jianbo Wang

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2011, 7, 631–637, doi:10.3762/bjoc.7.74

• the reaction of diazo compounds 1e and 1f with water, only 6-endo-dig cyclization products 2e and 2f were isolated as the sole product in yields of 69% and 75%, respectively. Functional groups such as bromo and hydroxy groups were tolerated under the present catalytic systems. When diazo compound 1g

• (R’ = H) was employed as the substrate, none of the cyclization product was detected and the water insertion product 4g was obtained in 81% yield. A tentative mechanism for this gold(I)-catalyzed cascade insertion/cyclization is proposed in Scheme 2. Decomposition of diazo compound 1 by (IPr)AuCl