Intermolecular oxonium ylide mediated synthesis of medium-sized oxacycles.

Detailed in this account are our efforts toward efficient oxacycle syntheses. Two complementary approaches are discussed, with both employing chemoselective allyl ether activation and rearrangement as the key step. Vinyl substituted oxiranes and oxetanes provide a single step access to dihydropyrans and tetrahydrooxepines.

Copper-catalyzed rearrangement of vinyl oxiranes.

A novel copper-catalyzed vinyl oxirane ring expansion protocol has been developed. A wide range of vinyl oxiranes can be rearranged to 2,5-dihydrofurans in excellent yields in the presence of electrophilic copper(II) acetylacetonate catalysts. Regioisomeric vinyl oxiranes can be converted to a single dihydrofuran product using these conditions.