Brønsted acid-promoted cyclizations of siloxy alkynes with unactivated arenes, alkenes, and alkynes

In this article, we describe the development of a general concept for the development of new carbon-carbon bond-forming processes, which is based on Brønsted acid-mediated activation of a siloxy alkyne, followed by efficient interception of the resulting highly reactive ketenium ion by unactivated arenes, alkenes or alkynes. We found that trifluoromethane sulfonimide (HNTf₂) proved to be a superior promoter of these reactions compared to a range of other Brønsted acids. This finding could be attributed to a high acidity of HNTf₂ in aprotic organic solvents combined with a low nucleophilicity of the NTf₂⁻ anion. Depending on the nature of the nucleophile, the carbocyclizations proceeded either via 6-endo-dig or 5-endo-dig manifolds. In the case of 1-siloxy-1,5-diynes, the cyclizations occurred with a concomitant halide abstraction or arylation.