Issue 18, 2022

Ruthenium pincer complex catalyzed efficient synthesis of quinoline, 2-styrylquinoline and quinazoline derivatives via acceptorless dehydrogenative coupling reactions

Abstract

The synthesis of N-heterocycles has been considered an emerging area of chemical research due to their extensive utilization in pharmaceuticals, materials science, and natural product synthesis. The development of green, atom-economical, and sustainable strategies for the construction of N-heteroaromatic compounds by employing readily available starting materials is highly desired in the scientific community. In this context, alcohol is found as a cheap, abundant in nature, and biorenewable substrate produced from a diverse range of sustainable resources. The transition metal-catalyzed acceptorless dehydrogenative coupling (ADC) of alcohols provides a prominent synthetic strategy to synthesize N-heterocycles in a sustainable and environmentally benign way since only hydrogen and water are formed as the eco-friendly by-products. Herein, we report an efficient method for synthesis of quinoline and quinazoline derivatives via ADC of alcohols catalysed by a bifunctional ruthenium NNN-pincer complex. With a lower catalyst loading (0.1 mol%), base loading (1 mol%) and shorter reaction time (6 h) under aerial conditions, a wide variety of substituted quinolines and quinazolines were synthesized from 2-aminobenzyl alcohols, secondary alcohols, and nitriles. Further, the catalyst was found to be effective for the synthesis of 2-styrylquinoline derivatives via a one-pot three-component ADC strategy of 2-aminobenzyl alcohol, isopropanol, and primary alcohols. Notably, this catalytic system showed a remarkably high TON of 440 000 for 2-phenylquinoline and a TON of 290 000 for 2-phenylquinazoline, which are the highest reported values hitherto for transition metal-based catalysts. Mechanistic studies were performed to understand the reaction pathway and the role of the catalyst in different steps.

Graphical abstract: Ruthenium pincer complex catalyzed efficient synthesis of quinoline, 2-styrylquinoline and quinazoline derivatives via acceptorless dehydrogenative coupling reactions

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
08 Jun 2022
Accepted
02 Aug 2022
First published
16 Aug 2022

Catal. Sci. Technol., 2022,12, 5695-5702

Ruthenium pincer complex catalyzed efficient synthesis of quinoline, 2-styrylquinoline and quinazoline derivatives via acceptorless dehydrogenative coupling reactions

D. Bhattacharyya, P. Adhikari, K. Deori and A. Das, Catal. Sci. Technol., 2022, 12, 5695 DOI: 10.1039/D2CY01030E

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