RuII-Catalyzed/NH2-Assisted Selective Alkenyl C-H [5 + 1] Annulation of Alkenylanilines with Sulfoxonium Ylides to Quinolines.

A novel ruthenium-catalyzed [5 + 1] annulation of 2-alkenylanilines with sulfoxonium ylides was developed for the rapid assembly of highly functionalized quinolines. This new catalytic process employs challenging but synthetically ideal free amino functionality to achieve alkenyl C-H activation with sulfoxonium ylides as one-carbon coupling partners. Various 2-acylquinolines could be obtained with good yields and excellent functional group tolerance. Moreover, the potential synthetic application of this methodology was exemplified by several chemical transformations.