Skeletal remodeling of chalcone-based pyridinium salts to access isoindoline polycycles and their bridged derivatives

Simultaneous deconstructive ring-opening and skeletal reconstruction of an inert, aromatic pyridinium ring is of great importance in synthetic communities. However, research in this area is still in its infancy. Here, a skeletal re-modeling strategy was developed to transform chalcone-based pyridinium salts into structurally intriguing polycyclic isoindolines through a dearomative ring-opening/ring-closing sequence. Two distinct driving forces for the deconstruction of the pyridinium core were involved in these transformations. One was the unprecedented harnessing of the instability of in situ generated cyclic β-aminoketones, and the other was the instability of the resultant N,N-ketals. The desired isoindoline polycycles could undergo the Wittig reaction with various phosphorus ylides to achieve structural diversity and complexity. Notably, by tuning the Wittig conditions by addition of one equivalent of base, an additional bridged ring was introduced. A plausible mechanism was proposed on the basis of control experiments and theoretical calculations.