Observations concerning the synthesis of heteroatom-containing 9-membered benzo-fused rings by ring-closing metathesis

A set of benzo-fused dienes with a 1,9-relationship and containing a variety of nitrogen and oxygen heteroatoms was readily synthesized. These dienes were then treated with the Grubbs second generation catalyst with the aim of synthesizing the 9-membered benzannelated heterocycles containing two heteroatoms (either O,O, NR,NR or O,NR where R = Ts or Boc). As previously observed in the literature, many of the dienes did not give the expected ring-closed product. However, a number of the desired products did form, namely with the 1,2-dihydrobenzo[c][1,5]oxazonin-7(5H)-one, 5,7-dihydrobenzo[b][1,5]oxazonine-6(2H)-carboxylate and 2,5,6,7-tetrahydrobenzo[b][1,5]oxazonine cores, albeit in poor yields. Rather surprisingly, the N-allyl-N-(2-(N-allyl-4-methylphenylsulfonamido)benzyl)-4-methylbenzenesulfonamide scaffold gave the desired ring-closed 1,6-ditosyl-2,5,6,7-tetrahydro-1H-benzo[b][1,5]diazonine in a high yield. Furthermore, when treated with the catalyst [RuClH(CO)(PPh3)3] the alkene isomerized into conjugation only with the benzylic NTs group and not with the phenyl NTs group to afford the 1,6-ditosyl-2,3,6,7-tetrahydro-1H-benzo[b][1,5]diazonine structure.

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