Dearomatization strategies for heterocycle construction

ORGN 927

F. Christopher Pigge, chris-pigge@uiowa.edu, Rashmi Dalvi, rashmi-dalvi@uiowa.edu, and Dhanya Raveendra Panickar. Department of Chemistry, University of Iowa, 305 Chemistry Building, Iowa City, IA 52242
Dearomatization processes offer attractive strategies for synthetic elaboration of readily available benzene derivatives. In particular, intramolecular spirocyclization reactions have the potential to provide structurally compact alicyclic building blocks well suited for further stereocontrolled manipulation. Toward this end, several complementary routes to heterocycles exhibiting the 2-azaspiro[4.5]decane framework have been developed. In one general approach, spirocyclization is effected upon nucleophilic aromatic addition to an electrophilic arene ruthenium moiety. Alternatively, a metal-free variant featuring iodinane-induced spirocyclization has also been uncovered. The synthetic utility of azaspirocyclic products will be discussed.