Synthetic and Computational Studies on RhIII-Catalyzed Redox-Neutral Cascade of Carbenoid Functionalization and Dephosphonylative Annulation

A Rh(III)-catalyzed regioselective redox-neutral cascade process of carbenoid functionalization followed by dephosphonylative annulation of benzoic acids with alpha-diazo-beta-keto phosphonate has been realized, which led to the direct synthesis of a privileged 3-substituted isocoumarin scaffold. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a complete redox neutral method to synthesize isocoumarins using C-H functionalization strategy. In the catalytic cycle of this reaction, there are two possible pathways for the C-C coupling between ortho-positioned carbon atom of benzoic acid and the diazo carbon atom: (i) concerted 1,2-aryl shift and (ii) stepwise metal-carbene formation followed by migratory insertion. DFT study has predicted that the concerted pathway has lower activation energy as compared to the stepwise pathway by 1.5 kcal/mol.