Nucleophile-Induced Rearrangement of 2 H-Azirine-2-carbonyl Azides to 2-(1 H-Tetrazol-1-yl)acetic Acid Derivatives

Org Lett. 2021 Aug 20;23(16):6362-6366. doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.1c02157. Epub 2021 Aug 12.

Abstract

2H-Azirine-2-carbonyl azides undergo a rearrangement into derivatives of 2-(1H-tetrazol-1-yl)acetic acid when interacting with O- and S-nucleophiles at room temperature. The reaction is catalyzed by tertiary amines or hydrazoic acid. The reaction with primary alcohols and phenols gives alkyl/aryl 2-(1H-tetrazol-1-yl)acetates. Thiophenols react with 2H-azirine-2-carbonyl azides to afford S-aryl 2-(1H-tetrazol-1-yl)ethanethioates. The mechanism of the nucleophile-induced rearrangement of 2H-azirine-2-carbonyl azides is discussed on the basis of DFT calculations as well as kinetic and 15N labeling experiments.