Synthesis of bicyclic ethers by a palladium-catalyzed oxidative cyclization-redox relay-π-allyl-Pd cyclization cascade reaction

Chem Commun (Camb). 2019 Jun 21;55(49):7013-7016. doi: 10.1039/c9cc03775f. Epub 2019 May 31.

Abstract

Bicyclic ether scaffolds are found in a variety of natural products and are of interest in probe and drug discovery. A palladium-catalyzed cascade reaction has been developed to provide efficient access to these scaffolds from readily available linear diene-diol substrates. A Pd redox-relay process is used strategically to transmit reactivity between an initial oxypalladative cyclization and a subsequent π-allyl-Pd cyclization at remote sites. The reaction affords a variety of bicyclic ether scaffolds with complete diastereoselectivity for cis-ring fusion.