Practical and Economic Zinc Chloride-Catalyzed Synthesis of Substituted Furans

Significance

The ZnCl₂-catalyzed cycloisomeri­zation of alk-3-ynones offers a simple and direct access to highly substituted furans. It is a practical and economic alternative towards cycloisomerization protocols that involve expensive gold catalysts. The reaction proceeds at ambient temperature and tolerates functional groups such as a propargyl ester functionality. The respective products could be isolated in high yields after relatively short reaction times and an easy-to-handle workup.