Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2020, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (9): 1401-1409.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(20)63575-6

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Acid-catalyzed chemoselective C- and O-prenylation of cyclic 1,3-diketones

Ying Lia,b, Yan-Cheng Hua, Ding-Wei Jia, Wei-Song Zhanga, Gu-Cheng Hea, Yu-Feng Congb, Qing-An Chena   

  1. a Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, Liaoning, China;
    b College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering, Liaoning Shihua University, Fushun 113001, Liaoning, China
  • Received:2020-01-19 Revised:2020-02-27 Online:2020-09-18 Published:2020-08-08
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21702204, 21801239).

Abstract: The chemoselective C- and O-prenylation of cyclic 1,3-diketones was achieved by tuning the prenyl source and catalyst. In the presence of the solid acid Nafion, the coupling of 1,3-cyclohexanediones with isoprene gave C-prenylated 5-chromenones. Alternatively, using prenol as the substrate with the Lewis acid AlCl3 as the catalyst resulted in the exclusive O-prenylation of 1,3-cyclohexanediones. Notably, the resulting products could easily undergo aromatization to deliver prenylated resorcinols that are otherwise difficult to prepare. Our methodology is highly selective, atom-economical, operationally simple, easily scalable, and has potential applications throughout organic synthesis.

Key words: 5-Chromenones, 1,3-Cyclohexanediones, O-Prenylation, [3+3] Annulation, Isoprene, Prenol