Olefin metathesis, which is well established in the petrochemical industry, is also emerging as a green technology in the manufacture of pharmaceutical and specialty chemicals. Arylbenzofurans are of interest for potential medicinal applications. In this paper we report on the synthesis of various 2-aryl- and 3-arylbenzo[b]furans with natural substitution patterns from readily available starting materials in a strategy that applies ring-closing metathesis with the Grubbs second generation catalyst as key step.
Key words
arylbenzofurans - metathesis - Grubbs catalyst - allylation - Tebbe methylenation - Grignard reagent - Al(OTf)
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