Tandem Conjugate Additions and 3‐Aza‐Cope Rearrangements of Tertiary Allyl Amines and Cyclic α‐Vinylamines with Acetylenic Sulfones. Applications to Simple and Iterative Ring Expansions Leading to Medium and Large‐Ring Nitrogen Heterocycles.

Tertiary acyclic allyl amines and tertiary cyclic α-vinyl amines undergo conjugate additions to acetylenic sulfones to produce zwitterion intermediates, followed by 3-aza-Cope rearrangements. In the case of cyclic α-vinyl amines, the process results in ring-expansion, providing a novel route to 9- to 17-membered cyclic amines. The Hammett plot for the reaction of 8b with 2a−2f shows ρ = +1.19, which is consistent with formation of the proposed zwitterion in the rate-determining step, where electron-withdrawing substituents on the arylsulfonyl moiety stabilize the negative charge and enhance the rate of the reaction. Alternative pathways were observed in methanol in the case of 11, where a methoxy substituent promotes a dissociative mechanism of the corresponding zwitterion via a stabilized allyl cation, whereas the zwitterion derived from amine 12 undergoes ring-opening by direct attack of methanol upon the strained aziridinium moiety instead of by rearrangement. An iterative process was developed, where ...