Intermolecular Desymmetrizing Gold-Catalyzed Yne-Yne Reaction of Push-Pull Diarylalkynes.
Vanessa WeingandThomas WurmVanessa VethackeMartin C DietlDaniel EhjeijMatthias RudolphFrank RomingerJin XieA Stephen K HashmiPublished in: Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) (2018)
Push-pull diaryl alkynes are dimerized in the presence of a cationic gold catalyst. The polarized structure of the applied starting materials enables the generation of a highly reactive vinyl cation intermediate in an intermolecular reaction. Trapping of the vinyl cation by a nucleophilic attack of the electron-poor aryl unit then leads to the selective formation of highly substituted naphthalenes in a single step and in complete atom economy.