Iodine-mediated hydration of alkynes on keto-functionalized scaffolds: mechanistic insight and the regiospecific hydration of internal alkynes

• Zachary Lee,
• Brandon R. Jones,
• Nyochembeng Nkengbeza,
• Michael Phillips,
• Kayla Valentine,
• Alexis Stewart,
• Brandon Sellers,
• Nicholas Shuber and
• Karelle S. Aiken

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2019, 15, 2747–2752, doi:10.3762/bjoc.15.265

• of the α-iodo intermediate, and methodology studies demonstrate that alkyl-capped, asymmetric, internal alkynes undergo a regiospecific hydration, also via the 5-exo-dig NGP pathway. Keywords: α-iodo intermediate; internal alkyne; iodine-mediated hydration; neighboring group participation

• (II) [7], silver(I) [8], and gold(I)/(III) [9][10][11][12]. While less toxic than mercury, such catalysts are still environmental hazards and tend to be costlier [13][14]. The iodine-mediated hydration described herein is a viable solution to these issues [15][16]. This metal-free method produces

• room temperature. Previous work by our group has shown that terminal alkynes on keto scaffolds undergo iodine-mediated hydration to form 1,4-diketo products 2 (Scheme 1) [15]. At that time, our studies revealed that a keto group must be present in the substrate, as the hydration requires neighboring