Novel thermal and microwave-assisted facile route to naphthalen-2(1H)-ones via an oxidative alkoxylation-ring-opening protocol.

Several novel 1,1-disubstituted-8-hydroxynaphthalen-2(1H)-ones have been efficiently synthesized via a two-step sequence from 2-hydroxy-1-naphthaldehyde oxime. The methodology involves oxidative ring closure and alkoxylation to 3a-alkoxynaphtho[1,8-de][1,2]oxazin-4(3aH)-ones, followed by thermal ring-opening. Both thermal and microwave irradiation conditions were used. A novel one-pot reaction of oxime to 8-isopropoxynaphthalene-1,7-diol using microwave irradiation is also reported.