Acid-Catalyzed Intramolecular Ring-Opening Reactions of Cyclopropanated Oxabenzonorbornadienes with Carboxylic Acid Nucleophiles

The present work demonstrates the ability of carboxylic acid-tethered cyclopropanated oxabenzonorbornadienes (CPOBDs) to undergo ring-opening reactions in mild acidic conditions. The optimized reaction conditions involve the use of pTsOH in DCE at 90 °C. Two regioisomers are formed but the reactions are highly regioselective towards type 3 ring-opened products. It was observed that substitution at the C-5 and aryl positions of CPOBD significantly hinders the ring opening reactions leading to decreased yields of ring-opened product, although high regioselectivity for the Type 3 ring-opened product is still maintained. Herein, we report the first examples of acid-catalyzed intramolecular ring-opening reactions of CPOBD with carboxylic acid nucleophiles.