Non‐oxidative, regioselective, and convergent access to densely functionalized oxazoles is realized in a functional‐group tolerant manner using alkynyl thioethers. Sulfur‐terminated alkynes provide access to reactivity previously requiring strong donor‐substituted alkynes such as ynamides. Sulfur does not act in an analogous donor fashion in this gold‐catalyzed reaction, thus leading to complementary regioselective outcomes and addressing the limitations of using ynamides.

A range of functionalized heteroaromatic boronic acid derivatives are readily accessed by a diboration/6π-electrocyclization sequence. This study revealed the surprising observation that there is a direct relationship between oxime ether stereochemistry and reactivity towards electrocyclization. Specifically, E-oxime ethers are found to be significantly more reactive than their Z-counterparts (stereochemistry relative to azatriene scaffold). In contrast, the configuration at the azatriene alkene terminus has little impact on reaction rates. Computational analysis offers a rationale for this observation; a N →C=C π* orbital interaction lowers the energy of the transition state in the electrocyclization of E-oxime ethers. Finally, unreactive Z-oxime ethers can be converted to the corresponding heterocyclic products by a photolytically promoted E→Z isomerization and electrocyclization sequence.

Non-oxidative,regioselective,and convergent access to densely functionalized oxazoles is realized in af unctionalgroup tolerant manner using alkynyl thioethers.S ulfur-terminated alkynes provideaccess to reactivity previously requiring strong donor-substituted alkynes such as ynamides.Sulfur does not act in an analogous donor fashion in this gold-catalyzed reaction, thus leading to complementary regioselective outcomes and addressing the limitations of using ynamides.Compared to other heteroatom-substituted alkynes,alkynyl thioethers are remarkably little explored in intermolecular late-transition-metal catalysis,d espite being readily accessed and robust. [1,2] Ynamides,i nc ontrast, are privileged substrates:i np-acid catalysis their donor nature aids metalalkyne coordination and affords highly polarized electrophiles,t hus providing the high chemo-and regioselectivity required for the discovery of efficient intermolecular reactions (Scheme 1a). [3,4] As the resulting inclusion of ad onornitrogen atom limits the utility of the products,r etaining the reactivity profile of these transformations whilst accessing more flexible and readily elaborated substitution patterns would be desirable.T he value of sulfur-substituted compounds [5] coupled with progress in C À Ca nd C-heteroatom bond formation from CÀSbonds, [6] renders alkynyl thioethers appealing alternatives to ynamides.I ndeed the ketenethionium pathway (Scheme 1a)f rom alkynyl thioethers has recently been invoked in proton-catalyzed reactions with nitriles [2g,h] and gold-catalyzed reactions with sulfides.[2i]Ynamides enabled the discovery of formal [3+ +2] dipolar cycloadditions with nucleophilic nitrenoids, [7] thus allowing intermolecular access to a-imino gold carbene-type reactivity for heterocycle synthesis (Scheme 1b). [8, 9] Such reactions, which do not depend on ynamides,a re scarce.[8b,h] As trong donor alkyne substituent proved critical in the formation of oxazoles using N-acyl pyridinium N-aminides,aselectron-rich alkynes such as anisole derivatives did not react (Scheme 1b, inset). [8a,b] Oxazoles are valuable synthetic intermediates [10,11] and structural components in bioactive natural products, [12] agrochemicals, [13] ligands, [14] and functional materials.[15]Despite recent advances,asingle modular and convergent route to trisubstituted oxazoles,which provides the structural and functional-group diversity needed across the 2-, 4-, and 5-positions,r emains unrealized. [16] Following our interest in the use of gold catalysis with sulfides [17] we report here on the reactivity of alkynyl thioethers with nucleophilic nitrenoids to prepare oxazoles. Importantly,t he regioselectivity is not consistent with ac ontrolling ketenethionium species.T he sulfur group plays an alternative role in enabling reactivity,t hus proving complementary to donor-enabled approaches.Ther eaction of the alkynyl thioether 1a and aminide 2a (Table 1) showed that conversion into the oxazole 3 was possible at 125 8 8Ci n1 ,2-dichlorobenzene (1,2-DCB;s ee...

The greater geometric lability of hydrazones over oxime ethers is used as a basis to overcome the reluctance of Zoxime ether azatrienes to undergo electrocyclization towards the synthesis of borylated (heteroaromatic) pyridines and ring-fused analogs. Such hydrazones now allow access to previously inaccessible tri-and tetrasubstituted 3-borylpyridines in high yields.The prominence of heteroaromatic motifs in pharmaceutical agents, agrochemicals and functional materials has motivated synthetic chemists to devise new strategies for the efficient and selective incorporation of these fragments into a broad range of molecular scaffolds. In this regard, boronic acid chemistry provides one of the most widely used approaches Scheme 1. Dependence of electrocyclization efficiency on oxime ether stereochemistry for the coupling of heteroaromatic systems because of the synthetic versatility of these compounds. 1

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