Efficient Synthesis of β-Enaminones and β-Enaminoesters Catalyzed by Gold (I)Silver (I) under Solvent-Free Conditions.docVIP

Molecules 2012, 17, 2812-2822; doi:10.3390/moleculeOPEN ACCESS molecules ISSN 1420-3049 /journal/molecules Communication Efficient Synthesis of β-Enaminones and β-Enaminoesters Catalyzed by Gold (I)/Silver (I) under Solvent-Free Conditions Ming Zhang 1, Ablimit Abdukader 1,2, Yong Fu 1 and Chengjian Zhu 1,3,* 1 State Key Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China; E-Mails: chemliu13@ (M.Z.); dg1024002@ (A.A.); fuyong2008@163.com (Y.F.) 2 School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, China 3 State Key Laboratory of Organometallic Chemistry, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: cjzhu@; Tel./Fax: +86-25-8359-4886. Received: 15 January 2012; in revised form: 16 February 2012 / Accepted: 17 February 2012 / Published: 6 March 2012 Abstract: An efficient method for the synthesis of β-enaminones and β-enaminoesters using a combination of [(PPh3)AuCl]/AgOTf as catalyst has been developed. The reaction between 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds and primary amines was carried out under solvent-free conditions with low catalyst loading in good to excellent yields at room temperature. Keywords: gold; solvent-free; amines; β-enaminones; β-enaminoesters 1. Introduction β-Enaminones and β-enaminoesters are highly useful building blocks [1–3], which can be further transformed into valuable natural therapeutic and biologically active compounds such as anticonvulsivant [4,5], anti-inflammatory [6], and antitumor agents [7,8]. Moreover, they are useful intermediates for the preparation of aminoesters [9], α,β-aminoacids [10,11], peptides [12], quinolines [13,14], azocompounds [15,16] and alkaloids [17–19]. Owning to their significances in organic synthesis, considerable eff