An Extremely Facile Synthesis of Furans, Pyrroles, and Thiophenes by the Dehydrative Cyclization of Propargyl Alcohols

Furans, pyrroles, and thiophenes are efficiently prepared by gold-catalyzed dehydrative cyclizations of readily available, heteroatom-substituted propargylic alcohols. The reactions are rapid, high-yielding, and procedurally simple, giving essentially pure aromatic heterocycles in minutes under open-flask conditions with catalyst loadings as low as 0.05 mol %.