An efficient and versatile tandem process of acetalization and cycloisomerization reactions has been developed for the reactions of 1-alkynyl-2-carbonylquinoline substrates. The reaction occurs thanks to Au(I) and Ag(I) catalysis. Silver(I) catalysis has been extensively studied (11 different silver species) on a broad range of quinoline derivatives (variation of alkyne substituent, of carbonyl function
Silver-catalyzed tandem acetalization and cycloisomerization reactions were found to lead to various furoquinolines, and a nitrogen effect was noticed for AgOTf reactivity, since the cyclization mode switched from 6-endo-dig to 5-exo-dig; from these observations silver imidazolate polymer is proposed as a stable silver catalyst.