Ambient Schmittel Cyclization Promoted by Chemoselective Triazole-Gold Catalyst

The Schmittel cyclization was achieved at room temperature through triazole-gold (TA-Au) catalyzed propargyl vinyl ether rearrangement. Other tested [L-Au](+) catalysts gave complex reaction mixtures under identical conditions with no desired products observed. Importantly, because of the employment of mild conditions, sterically hindered groups (such as t-Bu) on allene termini were no longer required, which allowed successful synthesis of previously challenging substrates.