Au-complex containing phosphino and imidazolyl moieties as a bi-functional catalyst for one-pot synthesis of pyridine derivatives

The complex of Au-L1 containing imidazolyl ring and the phosphine-ligated-Au moiety was synthesized and applied as the efficient bi-functional catalyst for the one-pot sequential condensation/annulation reaction for the synthesis of pyridine derivatives. It was found that, as for Au-L1, the involved imidazolyl group acted as a Lewis base to catalyze the condensation of carbonyl compounds with propargylamine to form the imino intermediate, and the involved Au⁺-complex species with alkynophilicity corresponded to the subsequent activation of imino-tailed alkynyl to afford dehydropyridine intermediate. The latter proceeded auto-oxidation reaction to afford the pyridine derivatives. The observed sequential catalysis over Au-L1 proved more efficient than that over the mechanical mixtures of the Au-complex (Au-L2) and N-methylimidazole, because the free N-methylimidazole as an N-containing donor competed with the alkyne substrate to coordinate to Au-center. Moreover, Au-L1 exhibited good generality to a wide range of the substrates for the synthesis of 2,3-fused pyridine derivatives and 2-aryl(heteroaryl)-substituted pyridines.