Reactions of 1-naphthols with π-acceptor p-benzoquinones:: Oxidative aryl coupling vs. non-oxidative electrophilic arylation

We investigated the reactions of various 1-naphthols (NPOHs; 1) with p-benzoquinones (Qs), such as 1,4-benzoquinone (BQ) and p-chloranil (CA), as pi-electron acceptors. With electron-rich NPOHs la-c, oxidative biaryl coupling and subsequent dehydrogenation reaction took place selectively to give the corresponding 2,2'-binapthyl-1,1'-quinones 3a-c in excellent yield. In the case of electron-deficient NPOHs le, f, two different types of reactions occurred in the presence of SnCl4 and ZrO2 under similar conditions: SnCl4 mediated oxidative dimerization and trimerization of NPOH, while ZrO2 promoted electrophilic arylation of Qs with NPOH. The resulting products 3 would be useful synthetic intermediates for naturally occurring diosindigo B, biramentaceone and violet-quinone.