Pnictogen-Bonding Catalysis: An Interactive Tool to Uncover Unorthodox Mechanisms in Polyether Cascade Cyclizations

Pnictogen-bonding catalysis and supramolecular σ-hole catalysis in general is currently being introduced as the non-covalent counterpart of covalent Lewis acid catalysis. With access to anti-Baldwin cyclizations identified as unique characteristic, pnictogen-bonding catalysis appeared promising to elucidate one of the hidden enigmas of brevetoxin-type epoxide opening polyether cascade cyclizations, that is the cyclization of certain trans epoxides into cis-fused rings. In principle, a shift from S_N2- to S_N1-type mechanisms could suffice to rationalize this inversion of configuration. However, the same inversion could be explained by a completely different mechanism: Ring opening with C−C bond cleavage into a branched hydroxy-5-enal and the corresponding cyclic hemiacetal, followed by cascade cyclization under conformational control, including stereoselective C−C bond formation. In this report, a pnictogen-bonding supramolecular Sb^V catalyst is used to demonstrate that this unorthodox polyether cascade cyclization mechanism occurs.