Benzotriazole has been established as an efficient ligand in Cu-catalyzed cross-coupling of terminal alkynes to form 1,3-dialkynes using CuI as the catalyst and K2CO3 as the base at room temperature in an open round-bottom flask. The established protocol has the following notable advantages: simple to handle, easy work-up, mild reaction condition, high substrate scope, requirement of less quantity of ligand and also Cu-catalyst, less expensive, and high reaction yield.
Benzotriazole has been established as an efficient ligand in Cu-catalyzed cross-coupling of terminal alkynes to form 1,3-dialkynes using CuI as the catalyst and K2CO3 as the base at room temperature in an open round-bottom flask. The established protocol has the following notable advantages: simple to handle, easy work-up, mild reaction condition, high substrate scope, requirement of less quantity of ligand and also Cu-catalyst, less expensive, and high reaction yield.
Conjugated 1,3-dialkynescontaining molecules are useful in various
fields of science as this moiety is found in several biological active
natural products, supramolecular, polymer, optical, and electronic
materials, as well as they actively participate in a number of organic
and inorganic syntheses.[1] There are various
strategies available for the synthesis of diverse 1,3-dialkynes, where
the most important protocol includes Glaser coupling and its modifications
in which terminal alkynes are heated with Cu(I) salts in the presence
of a base and an oxidant (Scheme ).[2] The Chodkiewicz–Cadiot
coupling method was applied to synthesize unsymmetric1,3-dialkyne
via Cu(I)-catalyzed coupling of terminal alkyne and haloalkyne.[3] Yu and Jiao nicely utilized Cu(I)-catalyzed decarboxylation
for the coupling of terminal alkyne and proiolic acid.[4] Lei et al. extended the Glaser coupling method for the
synthesis of unsymmetric1,3-dialkyne by using two different terminal
alkynes in the presence of NiCl2·6H2O/CuI
with a base and an oxidant.[5] Furthermore,
Rossi et al. synthesized conjugated 1,3-dialkynes by using palladium
salts with CuI.[6] Drawbacks related to these
methods such as use of toxiccatalysts, low reaction yields, requirement
of high reaction temperature, or longer reaction time warrant improved
protocols for this type of coupling (Table ).
Scheme 1
Comparative Illustration of This Work
with Previous Methods
Table 1
Reaction Optimization Study
entrya
catalyst (mol %)
ligand (mol %)
base (equiv)
temp °Cb
solventc
yield (%)d
1
CuI (10)
BtH (20)
K2CO3 (1)
120
DMF
85
2
CuI (10)
BtH (20)
K2CO3 (1)
50
DMF
99
3
CuI (10)
BtH (20)
K2CO3 (1)
25
DMF
99
4
CuBr (10)
BtH (20)
K2CO3 (1)
25
DMF
80
5
CuCl (10)
BtH (20)
K2CO3 (1)
25
DMF
72
6
CuOAc (10)
BtH (20)
K2CO3 (1)
25
DMF
75
7
CuSO4 (10)
BtH (20)
K2CO3 (1)
25
DMF
0
8
CuI (5)
BtH (10)
K2CO3 (1)
25
DMF
99
9
CuI (2)
BtH (5)
K2CO3 (1)
25
DMF
99
10
CuI (1)
BtH (2)
K2CO3 (1)
25
DMF
89
11
CuI (0)
BtH (5)
K2CO3 (1)
25
DMF
0
12
CuI (2)
BtH (0)
K2CO3 (1)
25
DMF
trace
13
CuI (2)
BtH (5)
K2CO3(0.5)
25
DMF
99
14
CuI (2)
BtH (5)
K2CO3 (0.2)
25
DMF
78
15
CuI (2)
BtH (5)
K2CO3 (0)
25
DMF
71
16
CuI (2)
BtH (5)
K2CO3 (0.5)
25
CHCl3
trace
17
CuI (2)
BtH (5)
K2CO3 (0.5)
25
DCM
trace
18
CuI (2)
BtH (5)
K2CO3 (0.5)
25
dioxane
65
19
CuI (2)
BtH (5)
K2CO3 (0.5)
25
CH3CN
60
20
CuI (2)
BtH (5)
K2CO3 (0.5)
25
toluene
39
21
CuI (2)
BtH (5)
K2CO3 (0.5)
25
benzene
43
22
CuI (2)
BtH (5)
K2CO3 (0.5)
25
THF
63
23
CuI (2)
BtH (5)
Cs2CO3 (0.5)
25
DMF
80
24
CuI (2)
BtH (5)
K3PO4 (0.5)
25
DMF
82
25
CuI (2)
BtH (5)
KtOBu (0.5)
25
DMF
0
26
CuI (2)
BtH (5)
KOH (0.5)
25
DMF
60
27
CuI (2)
BtH (5)
Et3N (0.5)
25
DMF
20
28
CuI (2)
5-Cl-BtH (5)
K2CO3 (0.5)
25
DMF
99
29
CuI (2)
HMBt (5)
K2CO3 (0.5)
25
DMF
10
30
CuI (2)
PhCOBt
(5)
K2CO3 (0.5)
25
DMF
99
31
CuI (2)
o-OMePhBt (5)
K2CO3 (0.5)
25
DMF
99
Molar ratio:
alkyne (1.0 mmol).
Temperature
may be vary by 2 °C.
Dry solvents.
Yields reported
after purification
by column chromatography (SiO2).
Molar ratio:
alkyne (1.0 mmol).Temperature
may be vary by 2 °C.Dry solvents.Yields reported
after purification
by column chromatography (SiO2).Advantages associated with benzotriazole, such as
high stability,
high solubility in most of the organic solvents, and compatibility
with the various reaction conditions, make this moiety a suitable
auxiliary in organic synthesis.[7] Our research
group has been exploring the amazing features of this moiety in many
ways for the last few years.[8] Recently,
we have exploited the coordinating property of benzotriazole moiety
and have successfully explored it as a ligand in intramolecular C–O
coupling reaction.[9] In continuation to
it, we have presented here 1H-bezotriazole as an
efficient ligand for Cu(I)-catalyzed Glaser coupling and isolated
the final coupling product in good to excellent yields.
Results and Discussion
Our synthetic strategy was initiated with Cu-catalyzed reaction
of phenyl acetylene 1a taking 20 mol % of 1H-benzotriazole as a ligand in the presence of 10 mol % CuI as catalyst
and K2CO3 as a base in traditional Glaser coupling
at 120 °C for 12 h and we got almost 85% yield (Scheme ) after flash column chromatography
(SiO2) and compound 2a is well characterized
by 1HNMR, 13CNMR, infrared, mass spectrometry,
and X-ray crystallography.
Scheme 2
Prototype Reaction for Synthesis of Symmetric
1,3-Dialkyne
After achieving favorable
promising results, we started the optimizing
reaction with compound 1a with respect to the reaction
temperature and found that below 50 °C we noticed only a single
spot on thin-layer chromatography (TLC) (entries 1–3). Then,
we optimized the reaction with respect to the catalyst and found that
all Cu(I)-sources give average to good yields but CuI is the best
as it converts the starting material into the product in almost 100%
conversion on TLC with only 2 mol % of loading (entries 3–11).
In continuation, we also optimized a suitable base for reaction type
and amount of ligand and solvent in which reaction (entries 12–34)
and found that entry no. 13, that is, 1.0 equiv of phenylacetylene
with 2 mol % of CuI in presence of 5 mol % of 1H-benzotriazole
and 0.5 equiv of K2CO3 in dimethylformamide
(DMF) is the most suitable condition for the reaction in open container
at 25 °C. Further, we started varying the terminal alkynes to
find out the reaction scope in the area of syntheticchemistry and
found that it goes equally well with aromatic, heterocyclic, and aliphatic
terminal alkynes.We also tested this reaction for glycosylated
alkynes but found
only 15% yield of the final compound with 5 mol % CuI. It may be due
to high crowding around the terminal alkyne part. We also observed
that changing the length of the aliphatic terminal alkyne and adding
different functional groups on the aromatic ring of alkyne, whether
its electron-withdrawing or electron-releasing, do not affect the
yield much (Figure ).
Figure 1
Synthesis of symmetric dialkyne, molar ratios: alkyne (1a–u) (1.0 equiv), K2CO3 (0.5 equiv), CuI (2 mol
%), benzotriazole (5 mol %). Yields after flash column chromatography
(SiO2).
Synthesis of symmetricdialkyne, molar ratios: alkyne (1a–u) (1.0 equiv), K2CO3 (0.5 equiv), CuI (2 mol
%), benzotriazole (5 mol %). Yields after flash column chromatography
(SiO2).To know whether our developed
method is good for synthesis of unsymmetrical
conjugated 1,3-dialkyne, we set up a reaction between 1.1 equiv phenylacetylene
and 1.0 equiv of 1-ethynylcyclohexan-1-ol under the above optimized
reaction conditions and isolated 1-(phenylbuta-1,3-diyn-1-yl)cyclohexanol
in 70% yield along with 2a, which indicates that our
ligand is equally useful for synthesis of unsymmetrical conjugated
1,3-dialkyne. We also generalized this reaction and found that it
gives good yields in unsymmetrical mode (Figure ).
Figure 2
Synthesis of unsymmetric dialkynes, molar ratios:
alkyne (1a–e) (0.5 equiv), K2CO3 (0.5
equiv), CuI (2 mol %), benzotriazole (5 mol %). Yields after flash
column chromatography (SiO2).
Synthesis of unsymmetricdialkynes, molar ratios:
alkyne (1a–e) (0.5 equiv), K2CO3 (0.5
equiv), CuI (2 mol %), benzotriazole (5 mol %). Yields after flash
column chromatography (SiO2).For quantity-based generalization of the reaction, we tried
this
reaction for gram scale and found good yields (98%) of symmetricdialkyne 2a. Similar results were achieved when the reaction was carried
out with unsymmetricdialkyne 3a, which suggests that
the efficiency of the ligand does not vary by scaling up the reaction
quantity (Scheme ).
Scheme 3
Gram-Scale Synthesis of Symmetric and Unsymmetric Dialkyne
The plausible mechanism is
depicted in Scheme , which possibly involves the typical Cu-catalyzed
C–C homocoupling steps. According to our postulations, the
first step involves the reaction of CuI with 1H-benzotriazole
to give intermediate A.[10,11] When this
intermediate A reacts with terminal alkyne, it activates
the sp C–H proton of the alkyne, which further can be easily
removed by the use of a base (e.g., K2CO3) and
afforded the coordination adduct intermediate B. This
intermediate at the last step undergoes C–C bond formation
via intermediates C and D to give the respective
conjugated 1,3-dialkynes as the final coupling product 2.
Scheme 4
Proposed Mechanism for the Synthesis of 1,3-Conjugated Dialkynes 2
Conclusions
In
conclusion, we have successfully established 1H-benzotriazole
as an efficient ligand for the Glaser coupling of
terminal alkynes to produce 1,3-conjugated dialkynes. This method
needs a lesser quantity of ligand and Cu-catalysts as compared to
previously reported methods. Our devised protocol works well at room
temperature and also in an open container and gives excellent reaction
yields for a variety of aliphatic and aromatic alkynes. Moreover,
the ligand was efficiently catalyzed for the synthesis of unsymmetricconjugated dialkynes by Glaser coupling.
Experimental Section
General
All solvents and reagents used were of pure
grade. TLC was performed on pre-coated aluminum plates and displayed
with either an Ultraviolet lamp (λmax = 254 nm) or
a specificcolor reagent (iodine vapor) or by spraying with methanolicH2SO4 solution and subsequent charring by heating
at 55 °C (for a carbohydrate derivative only). Solvents were
evaporated at a temperature < 50 °C under reduced pressure.
Column chromatography was carried out on silica gel (230–400
mesh, Merck) by using distilled n-hexane and ethyl
acetate. 1H and 13CNMR were recorded at 500
and 125 MHz, respectively. Chemical shifts were given in ppm downfield
from internal tetra methyl silane (TMS); J values
in hertz. Infrared spectra were recorded as Nujol mulls in KBr palettes.
Typical Experimental Procedure for the Synthesis of 1,3-Diyne
Phenylacetylene (1.0 mmol), benzotriazole (5.0 mol %), CuI (2.0
mol %), and K2CO3 (0.5 mmol) were taken in a
round-bottom flask and dissolved in DMF (1 mL) in an atmosphere of
air. The reaction mixture was vigorously stirred at room temperature
for 3–4 h. The progress of reaction was monitored by TLC. After
the completion of the reaction, ethyl acetate was added into the reaction
mixture and washed with brine. The organic layer was separated, dried
over anhydrous Na2SO4, and concentrated under
reduced pressure. The crude mass thus obtained was subjected to purification
by flash column chromatography (SiO2) using n-hexane and afforded product 2a (99% yield) as a white
solid.
Authors: Jessica S Lampkowski; Diya M Uthappa; John F Halonski; Johnathan C Maza; Douglas D Young Journal: J Org Chem Date: 2016-12-07 Impact factor: 4.354