Construction of pyrroles, furans and thiophenes via intramolecular cascade desulfonylative/dehydrogenative cyclization of vinylidenecyclopropanes induced by NXS (X = I or Br)

Pyrroles, furans, and thiophenes are important structural motifs in biologically active substances, pharmaceuticals and functional materials. In this paper, we disclose an efficient synthetic strategy for the rapid construction of multisubstituted pyrroles, furans, and thiophenes via NXS mediated desulfonylative/dehydrogenative cyclization of vinylidenecyclopropanes (VDCPs). The advantages of this method include wide substrate range, high efficiency and synthetic usefulness of the heterocyclic products under metal-free and mild conditions. The derivatization of pyrrole products and the preparation of functional molecules successfully demonstrated the synthetic potential of the products as platform molecules. The reaction mechanism has been investigated on the basis of control experiments and DFT calculations.