Divergent synthesis of benzazepines and bridged polycycloalkanones via dearomative rearrangement

The dearomative functionalization of aromatic compounds represents a fascinating but challenging transformation, as it typically needs to overcome a great kinetic barrier. Here, a catalyst-free dearomative rearrangement of o-nitrophenyl alkyne is successfully established by leveraging the remote oxygen transposition and a weak N-O bond acceleration. This reaction features high atom-, step- and redox-economy, which provides a divergent entry to a series of biologically important benzazepines and bridged polycycloalkanones. The reaction is proposed to proceed through a tandem oxygen transfer cyclization/(3 + 2) cycloaddition/(homo-)hetero-Claisen rearrangement reaction. The resulting polycyclic system is richly decorated with transformable functionalities, such as carbonyl, imine and diene, which enables diversity-oriented synthesis of alkaloid-like polycyclic framework.