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Updated: May 4, 2026

Preparation of Stable Bicyclic Aziridinium Ions and Their Ring-Opening for the Synthesis of Azaheterocycles
Published on: August 22, 2018
Synthetic scope and DFT analysis of the chiral binap-gold(I) complex-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of
María Martín-Rodríguez1, Luis M Castelló1, Carmen Nájera1
1Departamento de Química Orgánica e Instituto de Síntesis Orgánica, Universidad de Alicante, Apdo. 99, 03080-Alicante, Spain.
Abstract:
The 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition between glycine-derived azlactones with maleimides is efficiently catalyzed by the dimeric chiral complex [(S a)-Binap·AuTFA]2. The alanine-derived oxazolone only reacts with tert-butyl acrylate giving anomalous regiochemistry, which is explained and supported by Natural Resonance Theory and Nucleus Independent Chemical Shifts calculations. The origin of the high enantiodiscrimination observed with maleimides and tert-butyl acrylate is analyzed using DFT computed at M06/Lanl2dz//ONIOM(b3lyp/Lanl2dz:UFF) level. Several applications of these cycloadducts in the synthesis of new proline derivatives with a 2,5-trans-arrangement and in the preparation of complex fused polycyclic molecules are described.
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