Dehydration of carboxylic acids and tertiary amides promoted by sulfonium salts for ketene and ketene iminium generation and cycloaddition

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OmegaChem has developed two fields of expertise over the years, namely in the development of new, stable reagents (principally sulfonium salts) and in the research in medicinal chemistry (contract-based). The company is now seeking other applications that will a) open new avenues, b) be of general interest to organic chemists, and c) ideally serve their second field of expertise, namely the preparation of functionalized polycyclic frameworks toward biologically relevant classes of drugs. Ketenes are particularly appealing in this context: they are prepared by dehydration of carboxylic acids or derivatives and, upon intramolecular cycloaddition, generate varied bicyclic ketones, thus addressing all objectives. In this proposal, we want to develop a mild, low temperature dehydration of carboxylic acids and amides using sulfonium salts to generate ketenes and ketene iminiums ions that will be trapped in situ with an internal alkene or alkyne. Ring size, functional group compatibility as well as substitution on the substrate will be studied. Not only may we develop new sulfonium salts to be included in the arsenal of reagents proposed by OmegaChem, we will also develop new chemistry accessible with such reagents. This project is part of OmegaChem development strategy to advance their expertise and further affirm their unique international leadership as Canadian experts in specialized sulfonium reagents for dehydrative transformations.**