A silver-catalyzed formation of C-C bond for the construction of a series of polysubstituted quinolines from arylamines, aldehydes, and ketones or arylamines and 1,3-diketones has been developed. The transformation is effective for a broad range of substrates, thus enabling the expansion of constituent architectures on the heterocyclic framework. This use of a single catalytic system to mediate chemical transformations in a synthetic operation is important for the development of new atom-economic strategies and this strategy is efficient in building complex structures from simple starting materials in an environmentally benign fashion. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Silver-Mediated C–H Activation: Oxidative Coupling/Cyclization of <i>N</i>-Arylimines and Alkynes for the Synthesis of Quinolines
A silver-mediated tandem protocol for the synthesis of quinolines involving the oxidative coupling/cyclization of N-arylimines and alkynes has been developed. We demonstrated that scenario-dependent metalation could occur either at the ortho C-H bond of an N-arylimine through protonation-driven enhancement of acidity or at the terminal C-H bond of an alkyne by virtue of the carbophilic pi-acidity of silver. The diverse set of mechanistic manifolds implemented with a single type of experimental protocol points toward the importance of stringent reactivity analysis of each individual potentially reactive molecular site. Importantly, the direct arene C H bond activation provides a unique and distinct mechanistic handle for the expansion of reactivity paradigms for silver. As expected, the protocol allows for the incorporation of both internal and terminal alkynes into the products, and in addition, both electron-withdrawing and -donating groups are tolerated on N-arylimines, thus enabling the vast expansion of substituent architectures on quinoline framework. Further, an intriguing phenomenon of structural isomerization and chemical bond cleavage has been observed for aliphatic internal alkynes.