CuCl2-catalyzed N[sbnd]O bond cleavage of oxime esters: Approach to imidazoheterocycles and furo[3,2-c]chromenyl fused imidazoles

Abstract

An articulate approach to a diverse set of imidazoheterocycles in good to high yields via a copper-catalyzed aza-annulation of several oxime esters with a group of 2-amino-azaarenes was developed. The above cyclization reaction probably proceeds via a single electron transfer process which embodies a new technique for creating two new CN bonds for imidazole ring synthesis. Gratifyingly, the implementation of this chemistry could be further stretched to the synthesis of a novel class of fused imidazoles bearing a furo[3,2-c]chromene moiety via a sequential CN bond formation, followed by C(sp2)-H functionalization/5-endo-dig-oxacyclization (CC and CO bonds) of in situ produced fused imidazoles with cyclic enynones in the presence of copper(II) as a π-electrophilic Lewis acid catalyst.