Facile and efficient one-pot synthesis of 2-arylbenzoxazoles using hydrogen tetrachloroaurate as catalyst under oxygen atmosphere.

In this paper, we presented a novel method for the facile and efficient one-pot synthesis of 2-arylbenzoxazoles, which were directly synthesized from 2-aminophenol and aldehydes catalyzed by hydrogen tetrachloroaurate (HAuCl(4).4H(2)O) under an oxygen atmosphere with anhydrous tetrahydrofuran (THF) as solvent or in solvent-free condition. The results show that this method could bring excellent yields as high as 96%. THF was proven to be the best choice among several solvents screened and the reaction was tolerated with a variety of aromatic aldehydes possessing electron-donating or withdrawing groups. The advantages of the present method lie in catalytic process using economic and environmentally benign dioxygen as oxidant.