Aza-Diels–Alder reaction between N-aryl-1-oxo-1H-isoindolium ions and tert-enamides: Steric effects on reaction outcome

• Amitabh Jha,
• Ting-Yi Chou,
• Zainab ALJaroudi,
• Bobby D. Ellis and
• T. Stanley Cameron

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 848–857, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.81

• ; cyclization; Diels–Alder; inverse electron demand; N-acyliminium ion; tert-enamide; Introduction Fused indoline, isoindoline, quinoline and isoquinoline substructures are found in many natural products and bioactive synthetic compounds (Figure 1). For example, nuevamine is a naturally-occurring isoindolo[1,2

• reported reaction conditions for imino [4 + 2] Diels–Alder reactions [13][14] were employed here for the electrocyclization of N-acyliminium ions from N-aryl-3-hydroxyisoindolinones and tert-enamide analogues namely N-vinylpyrrolidone and N-vinylcaprolactam as the electron-rich dienophiles. Sixteen

• position. The polarized form of the tert-enamide dienophile, on the other hand, will have a positive and negative charge on carbons α and β to N, respectively. Such polarization can only lead to the regioisomer with the substitution at position 5 of the isoindoloquinoline ring. Even with this