S. Braverman et al., Base catalyzed rearrangement of pi-conjugated sulfur and selenium bridged propargylic systems, TETRAHEDRON, 57(44), 2001, pp. 9177-9185
A series of novel pi -conjugated bis-propargylic sulfides, selenides, sulfo
xides and sulfones have been prepared. In the presence of amine bases these
compounds underwent facile isomerization to the corresponding allenes, fol
lowed by a tandem cyclization and aromatization of the latter via a diradic
al intermediate. While the reactions of sulfones and sulfoxides were almost
spontaneous and proceeded in practically quantitative yield, the sulfides
and selenides exhibited modest reactivity and required more polar solvents
to afford the corresponding thiophenes and selenophenes. Some mechanistic s
tudies and DNA cleaving properties are also presented. (C) 2001 Elsevier Sc
ience Ltd. All rights reserved.