Abstract1,5-Diarylsubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles are formed in high yield from aryl azides and terminal alkynes in DMSO in the presence of catalytic tetraalkyl ammonium hydroxide. The reaction is experimentally simple, does not require a transition-metal catalyst, and is not sensitive to atmospheric oxygen and moisture.The copper(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) is a reliable means for the synthesis of 1,4-disubstituted-1H-1,2,3-triazoles. 1 The exceptional stability of 1,2,3-triazoles and the availability of a reliable synthesis leading to these heterocycles have enabled widespread applications of this previously underutilized class of azoles in medicinal chemistry, chemical biology and materials science. 2 In contrast to the 1,4-disubstituted-1H-1,2,3-triazoles, general and regioselective routes leading to the 1,5-regioisomers are not as well developed. [3][4][5][6][7][8] Although syntheses relying on the nucleophilic attack by the acetylide at the electrophilic terminal nitrogen of the azide are known, 9 the requirement for the stoichiometric lithium or magnesium acetylide reagent imposes obvious limitations on the range of functional groups that are compatible with these processes. Reported here is a mild and experimentally simple catalytic method for the generation of the reactive acetylides which readily react with organic azides resulting in the exclusive formation of 1,5-disubstituted triazoles.We envisioned that the high acidity of aryl acetylenes in dimethylsulfoxide [10][11][12] should allow formation of the reactive acetylide species by treatment of the alkyne with a hydroxide or fokin@scripps.edu. Supporting Information Available. Experimental procedures, characterization data, copies of 1 H NMR and 13 C NMR spectra. This material is available free of charge on the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org. alkoxide base in this solvent. In fact, formation of acetylide intermediates has been proposed by Ishikawa and co-workers in their studies of the alkynylation of ketones. 13 Screening of various hydroxides and alkoxides confirmed this hypothesis, revealing that anhydrous sodium, potassium, cesium hydroxides, and aqueous tetramethylammonium and benzyltrimethylammonium hydroxides catalyze formation of 1,5-diarylsubstituted-1H-1,2,3-triazoles in DMSO at room temperature (Table 1).
NIH Public AccessDry DMSO and less nucleophilic bases such as potassium tert-butoxide can also be used to minimize hydrolysis of substrates which contain base-sensitive functionalities. In many cases, the desired products precipitated upon addition of 5-20× volume of ice-cold water and were isolated by simple filtration. Reactions in DMSO afforded higher isolated yield than in DMF on larger scale and at higher concentration. Although tetraalkylammonium hydroxides resulted in the slightly diminished yield of the product compared to powdered KOH, the shorter reaction time and the experimental convenience of using aqueous base solutions make tetraalkylammonium hydroxides advantageous catalysts for practical reasons.While o...