Novel Synthesis of Benzoxazoles and Benzimidazoles
Sulfur/DABCO Promoted Reductive Coupling/Annulation Cascade Reaction between o-Hydroxy/Amino Nitrobenzenes and Benzaldehydes: M.-H. D. Dang, L. H. T. Nguyen, P. H. Tran
Synthesis 2020, 52, DOI: 10.1055/s-0039-1690823
Benzoxazoles and benzimidazoles are important fused nitrogen-containing heterocycles present in a wide range of natural products, pharmaceuticals, and functional materials. Access to these heterocyclic scaffolds through experimentally simple processes, promoted by inexpensive catalysts – such as molecular sulfur and DABCO – and using readily available substrates is a remarkably valuable goal for synthetic chemists, which has been recently achieved by the group of Professor Phuong Hoang Tran from the Vietnam National University (Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam).
Professor Tran said: “This strategy is capable of providing a wide range of 2-arylbenzoxazoles or 2-arylbenzimidazoles from o-nitrophenols or o-nitroanilines with benzaldehydes, is highly versatile, and has great potential for industrial application.”
