Tetrazoles have been widely studied for their biological properties. An efficient route for large-scale synthesis of 1,5-disubstituted tetrazoles (1,5-DTs) is presented. The strategy exploits a reductive approach to synthetize a cyclic chiral imine substrate which is then converted into the target product through an Ugi-azide three-component reaction (UA-3CR). The final products are equipped with additional functionalities which can be further elaborated for the generation of combinatorial libraries of enantiopure heterocycles.
Keywords: Ugi-azide; chiral imines; diversity-oriented synthesis; multicomponent reactions; tetrazoles.