Furan 3- hydroxy-, tautomers

Hydroxy derivatives. 2-Hydroxy derivatives usually exist as the oxo tautomers, unless the hydroxy tautomer is appreciably stabilized by electron-withdrawing or chelating substituents. The tendency for enolic hydroxy compounds to revert to the oxo form can be understood by reference to simple aliphatic ketones where the keto-enol equilibrium constants are of the order of 108. In the five-membered heterocycles under consideration, this tendency will be in opposition to the loss of aromatic resonance energy that increases in the order furan << thiophene < pyrrole. For the 2-hydroxy compounds 217 some extra stabilization of the oxo tautomers 218 and 219 is derived from the resonance energy of the X-C=0 group, which by analogy with open-chain compounds should increase in the sequence thiolester, ester << amide. 

Very little is known concerning the simple, monocyclic 3-hydroxy-furans (cf. reference 15). Both the oxo and hydroxy forms of the substituted 3-hydroxyfurans 26 and 27 (R = H, CcHn) have been isolated/ but the individual tautomers slowly undergo interconversion. The enol forms give a positive reaction with ferric chloride, react rapidly with bromine, and form a peroxide with oxygen. From chemical evidence, the benzo derivatives of 3-hydroxyfuran, 28 and 29, appear to exist predominantly in the oxo form, and this is further supported by ultraviolet spectral data. Stefanye and Howard- ... 

In a related transformation, the same group described a three-component domino reaction of 2-hydroxy-l,4-naphthoquinone, acting as a P-dicarbonyl surrogate, aromatic aldehydes and 1-(2-oxo-2-phenylethyl)pyridinium bromides in the presence of ammonium acetate, in water under microwave irradiation, that affords naphtho[2,3-Z)]furan-4,9-diones 31 [22]. Mechanistically, this domino reaction probably follows the same Knoevenagel-Michael intramolecular S 2 pathway described for the preparation of compounds 28, with ammonium acetate acting in this case as the base, to give intermediates 33. These compounds, which can be considered as tautomers of a hydroquinone species, would be finally transformed into the observed quinones by air-promoted oxidation, yielding the final products 31 (Scheme 1.16). 

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