A general approach to arylated furans, pyrroles, and thiophenes

A general and practical synthetic method for aryl-substituted five-membered heterocycles has been developed. In the presence of KOH (30%), 1,4-diaryl-1,3-butadiynes undergo the cyclocondensation reaction with water, primary amines, and Na2S·9H2O in DMSO at 80 °C to afford 2,5-diarylfurans, 1,2,5-trisubstituted pyrroles, and 2,5-diarylthiophenes in good to high yields. Further studies have disclosed that aryl-substituted five-membered heterocycles can be also synthesized by a one-pot, two-step strategy from the terminal alkynes in DMSO firstly catalyzed by CuCl, and then via addition of KOH to promote the cyclocondensation of 1,3-butadiynes generated in situ.