Azofuran activation for annulative rearrangement enabled by gold(I)/Brønsted acid relay catalysis

Qian Rao,¹ Yin Zhang,¹ Yin-Ping Liu, Bo Jiang,* Xiang Wang, Shu-Jiang Tu,* Wen-Juan Hao*

 A novel gold(I)/Brønsted acid relay catalysis enabling azofuran activation to induce annulative rearrangement from 3-yne-1,2-diols and aryldiazonium tetrafluoroborates is reported, producing a series of furan-2-yl-substituted pyrrol-2-ones bearing a quaternary carbon center with good yields. Exchanging aryldiazonium tetrafluoroborate for azofuran led to skeletally identical but substituent-diverse furan-2-yl-containing pyrrol-2-ones with good yields, supporting the key azofuran activation and annulative rearrangement by gold/Brønsted acid relay catalysis.

Chem. Commun. 2023, 59, 5725-5728; DOI:10.1039/D3CC00531C