title: A thermal cascade route to pyrroloisoindolone and pyrroloimidazolones.
abstract: Flash vacuum pyrolysis (FVP) of indol-1-ylacrylate derivatives 11 and 15 or the isomeric indol-3-ylacrylates 21, 22, and 24 at 925 degrees C (0.05 Torr) provides pyrrolo[1,2-a]indol-3-ones 2, 18, 28, and 29 in 53-90% yield by a cascade mechanism that involves a sigmatropic migration, elimination, electrocyclization sequence. Pyrrolo[1,2-a]imidazol-5-ones 3 and pyrrolo[1,2-c]imidazol-5-ones 4 were similarly obtained by FVP of corresponding 2,5-unsubstituted imidazol-1-ylacrylates (e.g., 33), with the former isomer predominating in ca. 80:20 ratio. Migration to the 2-position is therefore favored in the initial sigmatropic shift. FVP of 2-substituted imidazol-1-ylacrylates 35, 37, and 51 (825-875 degrees C) instead give pyrrolo[1,2-c]imidazol-5-ones 56-58 only (88-91%), and that of 4,5-disubstituted imidazol-1-ylacrylates 39 and 41 (825-850 degrees C) provide pyrrolo[1,2-a]imidazol-5-ones 59 and 60 exclusively (93-95%), and thus the selectivity of the initial shift can be controlled by the presence of substituents on the imidazole 2- and 5-positions. FVP of the benzimidazole analogues 61 and 62 at 950 degrees C gave the pyrrolo[1,2-a]benzimidazol-1-ones 6 (71%) and 63 (36%), respectively.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. h.mcnab@ed.ac.uk
authors.forename: Hamish
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: McNab
authors.forename: Richard G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Tyas
mesh_terms: D003500:Cyclization; D007093:Imidazoles / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D054833:Isoindoles / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D015394:Molecular Structure; D013237:Stereoisomerism; D013696:Temperature; D014618:Vacuum
chemical_list: D007093:Imidazoles; D054833:Isoindoles