Efficient Synthesis of Dimeric Oxazoles, Piperidines and Tetrahydroisoquinolines from N-Substituted 2-Oxazolones

A mild and practical method for the construction of heterocycles from N-substituted 2-oxazolones through cascade, BF3 center dot Et2O/H2O-catalyzed reactions involving iminium ion generation and trapping by external or internal olefinic and aryl moieties is described. Mechanistic and computational studies revealed the strong protic acid HBF4 as the initiating catalyst for these cascade reactions. Providing access to novel molecular diversity, these processes may facilitate chemical biology studies, drug discovery efforts and natural products synthesis.