A flexible method for the synthesis of 2-substituted 1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridines and piperidines from chloro-containing propargylamines

A general approach for the stereoselective synthesis of 2-substituted 1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridines and piperidines is described. The addition of 4-chloro-1-butyne to Ellman sulfinimines to produce chloro-containing propargylamines, reduction with Lindlar catalyst, and cyclization using LHMDS provides efficient, stereoselective access to diverse 2-substituted 1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridines. For substrates incompatible with the LHMDS cyclization reaction conditions removal of the sulfinamide moiety and cyclization with Cs2CO3 allows the preparation of the corresponding 2-substituted 1,2,5,6-tetrahydropyridines. This method can be extended to the synthesis of 2-substituted piperidines through reduction of the chloro-containing propargylamine with PtO2. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.