Hou J, Li X, Yan K, Zhang L, Loh TP, Xie P. Uracil-Cu(i) catalyst: allylation of cyclopropanols with Morita-Baylis-Hillman alcohols under water-tolerant conditions.
Chem Sci 2024;
15:1143-1149. [PMID:
38239700 PMCID:
PMC10793597 DOI:
10.1039/d3sc04890j]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2023] [Accepted: 12/07/2023] [Indexed: 01/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Inspired by the high affinity of copper with DNA and RNA, a uracil-copper catalytic system was developed to promote ring-opening allylation of cyclopropanols with allylic alcohols under water-tolerant conditions. A new C-OH bond-breaking model can well resolve the trade-off between the need for acidic activators for C(allyl)-OH bond cleavage and the demand for strong basic conditions for generating homoenolates. Therefore, Morita-Baylis-Hillman alcohols, rather than their pre-activated versions, could be incorporated directly into dehydrative cross-coupling with cyclopropanols delivering water as the only by-product. A variety of functionalized δ,ε-unsaturated ketones were obtained in good-to-high yield with high E-selectivity.
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