Critical ligand and salt effects in organomagnesiate-promoted 3,3-disubstituted phthalides synthesis from 2-iodobenzoate derivatives

Phthalides, also called isobenzofuranones, are widespread in many biologically active compounds and natural products. To date, most of their synthetic routes are non-convergent. Herein we report a convergent route using a metal halogen exchange (MHE) strategy. Indeed MHE of easily available 2-iodobenzoate derivatives, using the bimetallic organomagnesiate complex (rac)-(BIPHEN)BuMgLi, where (rac)-BIPHEN is (rac)-5,5′,6,6′-tetramethyl-3,3′-di-t-butyl-1,1′-biphenyl-2,2′-diol, followed by addition of a ketone which lead to an intramolecular cyclisation, and the formation of a series of diverse 3,3-disubstituted isobenzofuranones in good yield. Among the several MHE agents investigated, (rac)-(BIPHEN)BuMgLi was the only one to make such a process possible with full tolerance of various reactive functional substituents useful for subsequent transformations. The synthetic pathway to access the magnesiate has been found to play a prominent role in its reactivity. Therefore, the bimetallic magnesiate complex has been characterized by solution-state 1H, 7Li and 1H DOSY NMR experiments.