CuCl catalyzed radical cyclisation of N-alpha-perchloroacyl-ketene-N,S-acetals: a new way to prepare disubstituted maleic anhydrides

The copper catalyzed radical cyclization (RC) of N-α-perchloroacyl cyclic ketene-N,X(X = O, NR, S)-acetals was studied. While the RC of N-acyl ketene-N,O-acetals was unsuccessful, the 5-endo cyclization provided much better results, with the following order of cyclization efficiency: hexa-atomic cyclic ketene-N,NR-acetals < penta-atomic cyclic ketene-N,S-acetals < hexa-atomic cyclic ketene-N,S-acetals. Invariably the catalytic cycle begins with the formation of a carbamoyl methyl radical. This leads to a cascade of reactions, including a radical polar crossover step, which ends with the formation of the maleimide nucleus, or precursors of this. Products from the RC of the hexa-atomic cyclic ketene-N,S-acetals, were efficiently transformed into disubstituted maleic anhydrides.