Mechanistic Insights into the Post-Cyclization Isomerization in Gold-Catalyzed 7-exo-dig-Hydroarylations

The subsequent double-bond isomerization in the synthesis of dibenzocycloheptenes and their heteroaromatic analogues was investigated. In the case of biphenyls, a basic additive completely prevented an isomerization to the thermodynamic product. With electron-rich intramolecular heteroaromatic nucleophiles, the isomerization was still observed, but the kinetic product can be obtained by careful control of the reaction times in most cases. Mechanistic studies demonstrated that a slow isomerization is also possible with the gold catalyst at elevated temperatures, but much faster isomerization rates were observed with acidic additives. An observed initiation period for the gold-catalyzed isomerization indicates that not the homogenous catalyst, but a decomposition product of it may be the catalytically active species.