Phosphine-Catalyzed Chemoselective Reduction/Elimination/Wittig Sequence for Synthesis of Functionalized 3-Alkenyl Benzofurans

Org Lett. 2021 Apr 16;23(8):3064-3069. doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.1c00737. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

Abstract

An efficient protocol for the construction of functionalized 3-alkenyl benzofurans is demonstrated under metal-free conditions using catalytic amount of phosphine proceeding an intramolecular Wittig reaction. This one-pot reaction initiated by the phospha-Michael addition of phosphine to O-acylated nitrostyrene, in which phosphine was in-situ-generated from the chemoselective reduction of phosphine oxide with PhSiH3, would provide the phosphorus ylide to result in the aforementioned multifunctionalized benzofuran via O-acylation/nitrous acid elimination/Wittig reaction.