AbstractΔ2‐Pyrrolin‐4‐ones undergo organocatalyzed sulfa‐Michael/aldol domino spirocyclizations with mercaptoacetaldehyde dimer. The products contain three contiguous stereocenters (ee up to 99%, dr up to 95:5, 25 examples) and can be transformed into analogues of natural products. With the use of a single catalyst, the absolute configuration of the products were determined by the configuration of the exocyclic double bond of the starting material. These results point at the possibility of a widespread use of unsaturated Δ2‐pyrrolin‐4‐ones in various (organo)catalyzed (cascade) transformations for accessing libraries of 3D‐rich pyrrolone‐based (spiro)heterocycles.magnified image

Arilidene-Δ2-pyrrolin-4-ones undergo organocatalyzed double spirocyclization with 3-isothiocianato oxindoles in a domino 1,4/1,2-addition sequence. The products contain three contiguous stereocenters (ee up to 98%, dr up to 99:1, 12 examples). The absolute configuration of the major diastereomer was determined by single crystal X-ray analysis. Along with heterocyclic Michael acceptors based on oxazolone, isoxazolone, thiazolidinone, pyrazolone, and pyrimidinedione, the reported results display the applicability of unsaturated Δ2-pyrrolin-4-ones (pyrrolones) for the organocatalyzed construction of 3D-rich pyrrolone-containing heterocycles.