New Regiospecific Catalytic Approaches to 4,5-Dihydroisoxazoles and 2,5-Dihydroisoxazoles from O-Propargylic Hydroxylamines

Unprotected O-propargylic hydroxylamines undergo generally essentially quantitative cyclisations when exposed briefly to silver nitrate adsorbed onto silica gel to give 4,5-dihydroisoxazoles [2-isoxazolines], while N-protected derivatives give the corresponding 2,5-dihydroisoxazoles [3-isoxazolines] in similarly excellent yields, given that an appropriate functionality on nitrogen is used.