Alkoxide-Catalyzed Hydrosilylation of Cyclic Imides to Isoquinolines via Tandem Reduction and Rearrangement

An alkoxide-catalyzed hydrosilylation of cyclic imides to isoquinolines was realized via tandem reduction and rearrangement. Using TMSOK as the catalyst and (EtO)2MeSiH as the reductant, a series of cyclic imides containing different functional groups were reduced to the corresponding 3-aryl isoquinolines in moderate to good yields. The scenario of the reaction pathway was supposed to involve the reduction of imides to ω-hydroxylactams, which underwent rearrangement in the presence of a base catalyst, and then the carbonyl reduction, followed by siloxy elimination.