Palladium-Catalyzed [3 + 2] Annulation of Alkynes with Concomitant Aromatic Ring Expansion: A Concise Approach to (Pseudo)azulenes

The construction of (pseudo)azulenes represents an appealing yet challenging task in organic synthetic chemistry. Herein, we disclose a palladium-catalyzed [3 + 2] annulation technique of alkynes with concomitant aromatic ring expansion driven by a diboron reagent and iodide, affording a concise approach to azulenes (7-fused-5 bicycle) and pseudoazulenes (6-fused-5 bicycle). Compared with the documented synthetic strategies, the route to (pseudo)azulenes developed herein is applicable for both homo- and cross-annulation processes and exhibits a broad substrate scope. It is worth noting that this transformation is not only suitable for the ring expansion of the phenyl moiety to afford azulenes but also applicable to the ring expansion of the electron-rich five-membered heterocycles to deliver pseudoazulenes. Experimental and computational investigations on the mechanism support the formal trans-palladium-boration across the alkyne, cis-addition of the alkyne, dearomative spiroannulation, and aromatic ring expansion process.