Medium Rings Bearing Bitriazolyls: Easily Accessible Structures with Superior Performance as Cu Catalyst Ligands

Benefiting from their unique properties, the development of structurally novel and easily accessible medium rings is of significant interest in the pharmaceutical industry and academic research. However, synthetic access to medium-ring scaffolds is very difficult due to their rigid skeleton and large-angle strains. In this paper, a new class of medium rings bearing bitriazolyls (MRBTs) was designed, synthesized, identified as a promising new skeleton ligand for the Cu­(I)-catalyzed click reaction, and used in site-special modification of protein. One of the MRBTs, 3aa, exhibited a turnover number (TON) as high as 55 000 and dramatic accelerating effects (kobs = 1.95 M–1 s–1) and ranked among the most efficient ligands for copper-catalyzed alkyne and azide cycloaddition. Unlike the difficult access to other known medium rings, these 7–12-membered MRBTs can be prepared in straightforward, one-step manner from structurally diverse linear terminal diynes and azides. The unique accessibility and intriguing properties therefore imply their broad application perspectives.