Abstract
Some new di- and trisubstituted imidazole-4-carboxylates were prepared from amidoacetic acids 3 in the present report. The key step to establish such imidazole-4-carboxylates stemmed from the PBu3-mediated [3 + 2] cycloaddition between in situ–generated Δ2-oxazolinone 4 and ethyl cyanoformate6. Our results indicated that trisubstituted imidazoles 7–20 were afforded in better yields than those of disubstituted imidazoles 21–27.
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GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Financial support from the National Science Council of the Republic of China to A. Y. S. is gratefully acknowledged.
Notes
a Yield refers to two-step isolated 7 from amidoacetic acid 3a.
b The product was not found.
a One-pot, two-step isolated yield.