Cu(0)-catalysed 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions of α-amino acid derived N,N-cyclic azomethine imines to ynones

A series of 20 CuAIAC reactions between eight 4-acylamino substituted pyrazolidine-3-one-1-azomethine imines and four terminal ynones were performed using Cu⁰ as catalyst. The corresponding fluorescent cycloadducts were obtained in very high yields upon simple workup. Thus, Cu-metal turned out to be a better catalyst than Cu^I in terms of yield and ease of isolation. Availability of azomethine imines, mild reaction conditions, and simple workup enable a “click” access to libraries of densely substituted 2,3-dihydro-1H,5H-pyrazolo[1,2-a]pyrazol-1-ones. Reactivity of differently substituted dipoles was evaluated experimentally and by quantum chemical methods (DFT).

Read article: Tetrahedron, 2017, 73, 3329-3337