Regiospecific synthesis of 3,4-disubstituted furans and thiophenes

The regiospecific synthesis of 3,4-disubstituted furans and thiophenes is reviewed. Our initial approach used 3,4-bis(tri-n-butylstannyl)furan as a building block, which led to many structurally diverse 3,4-disubstituted furans. Another avenue was explored by using 3,4-bis(trimethylsilyl)furan and 3,4-bis(trimethylsilyl)thiophene as precursors. A variety of unsymmetrically 3,4-disubstituted furans and thiophenes were prepared in this way. The advantages of our strategy Lie in its stepwise manner as well as its prospect of yielding 3,4-disubstituted furans and thiophenes with rather different substitution pattern.