Synthesis of medium-sized heterocycles from oxetanes based on an allylic amination/ring-opening strategy

The construction of medium-sized ring compounds has been a prominent research area in synthetic chemistry. In this study, we developed a tandem strategy that combines allylic amination and ring-opening of oxetanes to synthesize medium-sized heterocycles. Specifically, N-aryl oxetan-3-amines undergo allylic amination with zwitterionic pi-allylpalladium, followed by intramolecular ring-opening, resulting in the formation of medium-sized heterocycles. Notably, we are able to achieve the synthesis of 7-8 membered heterocycles with moderate to good yields by employing different types of zwitterionic pi-allylpalladium species. In this study, a tandem strategy has been developed for the synthesis of medium-sized heterocycles from oxetanes through the allylic amination/ring-opening of oxetanes.