Efficiency Enhancement of a Photocatalytic Decarbonylation of an Aminocyclopropenone by Benzothiophene Substitution

J Org Chem. 2021 Feb 19;86(4):3625-3636. doi: 10.1021/acs.joc.0c02997. Epub 2021 Feb 8.

Abstract

To improve the efficiency of the photocatalytic decarbonylation of cyclopropenones, the effects of substituents on cyclopropenone were explored. A benzothiophene-substituted aminocyclopropenone exhibited significantly improved decarbonylation efficiency to produce the corresponding ynamine, which worked as a potent dehydration condensation agent. The benzothiophene derivative was applicable to the photocatalytic reaction in the presence of potential excited-state quenchers such as oxygen and anilines. The high catalyst sensitivity would be attributed to the involvement of triplet energy transfer reaction pathway, which was not observed in the reaction with previously reported aminocyclopropenones.