Benzynes reaction with furans

The high efficiency of the present precursor 2 is demonstrated by comparison with a similar precursor, 2-(trimethylsilyl)phenyl triflat (4), which generates benzyne under mild conditions (room temperature and neutral).7 Benzyne precursor 2 gives the adduct, 1,4-epoxy-1,4-dihydronaphthalene 3, quantitatively in the reaction with furan, while the reaction of benzyne precursor 4 under the same conditions leads to a lower yield of adduct 3 and needs longer reaction time. 

Dieh-Alder reactions with benzyne. Shepard has recently demonstrated that benzyne generated from chlorobenzene and LiTMP undergoes expected Diels-Alder cycloadditions with reactive dienes. The reaction with furane itself fails because of a base-promoted side reaction. 

A new cathodic cyclodimerisation of 4-pyrones yields either (90) or (91) depending on conditions,88 2-Benzopyran-3-one has been isolated at low temperature and intercepted by NPM as the adduct (92) 88 high-pressure cycloaddition reactions of 2H-pyran-3-ones with a variety of dienophiles have been recorded.88 Cycloaddition reactions of furans and isobenzofurans continue to dominate this section. Dienophiles whose reactions with furan have been studied recently include phenylsulphonylpropadiene (giving predominantly the endo-adduct (93) 8b. benzynes (derived from aryloxazoli nesJ.8 and... 

Arynes with their reactive triple bond would be expected to participate readily in cycloaddition reactions. However, as demonstrated in the previous section, the addition of nucleophiles is extremely facile, and therefore reactions with non-nucleophilic reagents cannot usually be observed unless the aryne is generated in the absence of nucleophiles. In practice this usually means that routes involving the treatment of aryl halides with nucleophilic bases cannot be used. The first cycloaddition reaction of ortho-benzyne, the Diels-Alder reaction with furan was observed in 1955 by Wittig and used 2-fluorobromobenzene as the precursor. The cycloadduct was obtained in almost 90% yield, and the reaction has formed the basis for numerous synthetically useful Diels-Alder cycloadditions involving arynes. Tetrabromobenzene reacts with butyllithium to give the diaryne intermediate with furan to form a tetrahydroanthracene. The mixture of syn and anti conformers can be separated based on differences in methanol solubility (Scheme 7.26). 

With selected aryne precursors it has been possible to demonstrate the intermediacy of free arynes in cyclojaddition reactions by other methods. The most convincing of these is the previously mentioned spectroscopic detection of benzyne (1) from the photolysis of phthaloyl peroxide (72) in an argon matrix at 8 K and its subsequent reaction with furan (146a) upon warming to give the adduct 148a. A conceptually similar technique is pseudodilution, in which... 

The reaction of benzyne with furan was the first example of a Diels-Alder reaction of benzyne to be studied b. No authenticated examples of arynes are known which fail to give cyclo-adducts with furan i38>. The tetrahalogenobenzynes all form the expected adducts 103, X = F 6), Cl 57>i39)j gr 59) or i 59)). d0 other highly fluorinated arynes i40,i4i>. The isomeric adducts (104) and (105) have been detected by 19F n.m.r. spectroscopy when the dilithio-compound (12) was allowed to decompose in the presence of furan 28 103). 

Strong base treatment of the spiro salt 49 gives a benzyne (107) from which the isolated products were produced by further reaction. For example, with n-butyllithium and furan in tetrahydrofuran, 108 is produced after hydrogenation and acid treatment via 109. Reaction with phenyllithium gives 110 (R == Ph and Me) by subsequent addition of phenyl or methyl anion to the benzyne, respectively, and 110 (R = I) by subsequent reaction with iodine anion. Similarly the 9,9-diphenyl salt 111 gives 112 with phenyllithium. Pyrolysis of the spiro salt 49 gives 50. 

Benzyne in solution reacts as a dienophile Wittig (1957) first demonstrated this in the reaction of benzyne with furan. Corbett and Porter (1965) obtained further supporting evidence by isolating 1,4-addition products from benzyne with 1-vinylnaphthalene and 3-vinylbenzo[b]-thiophene Dilling (1966) did the same with styrene. 

Benzyne is a good dienophile. For example, reaction of 2-bromofluorobenzene with lithium metal or decomposition of benzenedi-azonium-2-carboxylate both generate benzyne, which can be trapped with furan to give a naphthalene endoxide (Scheme 4.10). 

Benzynes are readily formed when we have a leaving group ortho to a lithium atom. Thus when ortho-bromo(1 uorobenzene 143 is reacted with butyl lithium, the intermediate formed is ortho-lithiofluorobenzene 144. Lithium fluoride can eliminate from this to yield benzyne 145. Benzynes are reactive species and do not hang about. Here, ort/to-bromofluorobenzene is treated with butyl lithium in the presence of furan. When the benzyne forms it rapidly reacts with furan in a cycloaddition reaction to form the adduct 146 in a 68% yield. 

Benzyne can be trapped in 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions provided that the 1,3-dipolar species is sufficiently stable under the conditions necessary for benzyne generation. As an illustration of this, benzyne reacts with the nitrile oxide group in preference to the furan ring of compound 19, whereby adduct 20 is obtained.27 Benzyne and the nitrone 21 give adduct 22,28 and... 

The very efficient reaction of furan with benzyne, discovered by Wittig and Pohmer was the earliest example of benzyne behaving as a dienophile.39 Formation of the oxygen-bridged adduct 39 and its acid-catalyzed isomerization into 1-naphthol are often used diagnostically for the detection of benzyne generated by new pathways. 

Furan also undergoes cycloadditions with allenes," " with benzyne" and with simpler dienophiles, like acrylonitrile and acrylate various Lewis acidic catalysts can assist" in some cases, zinc iodide is one such, hafnium tetrachloride another, and improved endo exo ratios are obtained in an ionic liquid as reaction solvent. Maleate and fumarate esters react if the addition is conducted under high pressure. This device can also be used to increase markedly the reactivity of 2-methoxyfuran and 2-acetoxyfuran towards dienophiles. At higher reaction temperatures alkynes and even electron-rich alkenes will add to furan. 3- or 5-Halo-furans react faster in these cycloadditions. ... 

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