Computational Study on the Acid Catalyzed Reactions of Fluorine-Containing 2,4-Dialkoxy-3,4-dihydro-2H-pyrans with Aromatic Compounds

The reaction of 2,4-diethoxy-6-trifluoromethyl-3,4-dihydro-2H-pyran (1) with aromatic compounds in refluxing acetonitrile in the presence of p-toluenesulfonic acid gave the mixture of 4-aryl-2-trifluoromethyl-4H-pyrans (3) and 6-aryl-1,1,1-trifluorohexa-3,5-dien-2-ones (4). In contrast, the same reaction carried out in trifluoroacetic acid at ambient temperature afforded 4-aryl-2-ethoxy-6-trifluoromethyl-3,4-dihydro-2H-pyrans (2) selectively. These two types of reactions giving quite different products under each condition were studied on the basis of DFT calculations. Moreover, the proposed mechanism for the reaction of 5-trifluoroacetyl-6-trifluoromethyl-3,4-dihydro-2H-pyran (5) with aromatic compounds affording butadiene derivatives (6) exclusively was also discussed based on the calculations and comparison with the reactivity of pyrylium intermediate (7).