Highly efficient heterogeneous synthesis of benzofurans under aqueous condition

Recent Achievement in the Synthesis of Benzo[b]furans

BACKGROUND

Benzo[b]furan derivatives are oxygen-containing heterocyclic compounds consisting of fused benzene and furan rings and are present in a large number of natural and non-natural compounds. This class of compounds has a wide spectrum of biological activities, such as antiarrhythmic, anticancer, inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and antiviral. Furthermore, benzo[b]furan derivatives have also been applied in various areas, such as organic electroluminescence device materials and organic dyes, photosensitizing material, organic synthesis as building blocks or intermediates. Because of a broad range of applicability, the synthesis of benzo[b]furan derivative has drawn great attention of chemists and many studies on the synthesis of this class of compounds have been reported recently. This review will give an overview of benzo[b]furan preparation based on studies dating back to the year 2012.

OBJECTIVE

In this review, recent development in the synthesis of benzo[b]furans are discussed. There has been increasingly new methodologies for the construction of benzo[b]furans skeleton to improve efficiency or develop environmentally friendly procedures. In some studies, reaction mechanisms were also outlined.

CONCLUSION

Many methods for the synthesis of benzo[b]furans have been reported recently. Most of them involve cyclization or cycloisomerization processes. Unquestionably, more imaginative strategies for the construction of benzo[b]furan skeleton will be established in the near future. Application of known methods to natural products or drug synthesis, on industrial scale for the synthesis of economically or medicinally important benzo[ b]furans will probably be paid attention to.

Last Decade of Unconventional Methodologies for the Synthesis of Substituted Benzofurans

This review describes the progress of the last decade on the synthesis of substituted benzofurans, which are useful scaffolds for the synthesis of numerous natural products and pharmaceuticals. In particular, new intramolecular and intermolecular C-C and/or C-O bond-forming processes, with transition-metal catalysis or metal-free are summarized. (1) Introduction. (2) Ring generation via intramolecular cyclization. (2.1) C7a-O bond formation: (route a). (2.2) O-C2 bond formation: (route b). (2.3) C2-C3 bond formation: (route c). (2.4) C3-C3a bond formation: (route d). (3) Ring generation via intermolecular cyclization. (3.1) C7a-O and C3-C3a bond formation (route a + d). (3.2) O-C2 and C2-C3 bond formation: (route b + c). (3.3) O-C2 and C3-C3a bond formation: (route b + d). (4) Benzannulation. (5) Conclusion.

Palladium complexes with an annellated mesoionic carbene (MIC) ligand: catalytic sequential Sonogashira coupling/cyclization reaction for one-pot synthesis of benzofuran, indole, isocoumarin and isoquinolone derivatives

A Pd(ii) complex containing a mesoionic carbene and phosphine ligands is an efficient catalyst for tandem coupling/cyclization reaction.

Dioxazolones as masked ester surrogates in the Pd(ii)-catalyzed direct C-H arylation of 6,5-fused heterocycles

A simple and effective Pd(ii)-catalyzed regioselective C(2)-H arylation of 6,5-fused heterocycles with dioxazolones as a masked ester surrogate under mild conditions is reported. The significance of the arylation is highlighted by the new reactivity demonstrated in dioxazolones via proximal C-H activation of the cyclic carbonate of the hydroxamic acid functionality under protic conditions.

Facile synthesis of 2-substituted benzo[b]furans and indoles by copper-catalyzed intramolecular cyclization of 2-alkynyl phenols and tosylanilines

A catalytic amount of CuCl and Cs₂CO₃ was employed to synthesize a variety of 2-substituted benzo[b]furans and indoles by an intramolecular cyclization of 2-alkynyl phenols and tosylanilines. This protocol features mild conditions, high yields and broad substrate scope, which makes it a practical method for the synthesis of 2-substituted benzo[b]furans and indoles.

A facile and inexpensive copper-catalyzed method was developed for the synthesis of 2-substituted benzo[b]furans and indoles.

Synthesis of Furan-Annelated BINOL Derivatives: Acid-Catalyzed Cyclization Induces Partial Racemization

In this account, we describe the synthesis of a series of BINOL-based bis- and trisphosphoric acids 11d/e/f, which commonly feature an unusual phosphoric acid monoester motif. This motif is generated by an acid-catalyzed 5- endo- dig cyclization of the 3-alkynyl-substituted BINOL precursors to give the corresponding Furan-annelated derivatives, followed by phosphorylation of the remaining phenolic alcohols. In the cyclization reaction, we observed an unexpected partial racemization in the bis- and tris-BINOL scaffolds, leading to mixtures of diastereomers that were separated and characterized spectroscopically and by X-ray crystal structure analyses. The cyclization and racemization processes were investigated both experimentally and by DFT-calculations, showing that although the cyclization proceeds faster, the barrier for the acid-catalyzed binaphthyl-racemization is only slightly higher.

Transition-metal-free base catalyzed intramolecular cyclization of 2-ynylphenols for efficient and facile synthesis of 2-substituted benzo[b]furans

An efficient and practical transition-metal-free synthesis of 2-substituted benzo[b]furans catalyzed by readily accessible base was developed with broad substrates scope.

Hydrazone–palladium catalyzed annulation of 1-cinnamyloxy-2-ethynylbenzene derivatives

The annulation of 1-cinnamyloxy-2-ethynylbenzene derivatives using a hydrazone–palladium catalyst system proceeded smoothly and gave the corresponding 2-substituted-3-cinnamylbenzofurans in good-to-excellent yields.