Copper-mediated tandem reaction of β-ketoesters/ketones with tertiary amines for the synthesis of 2,3-dihydrofuransElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. CCDC 1017041. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c5ob00191a

A copper-mediated tandem reaction of β-ketoesters/ketones with tertiary amines was achieved, which provides a simple and efficient approach to the synthesis of 2,3-dihydrofuran derivatives. In this tandem reaction, the tertiary amine not only offers the methylene moiety but also serves as the base. A novel synthetic method of 2,3-dihydrofuran using β-ketoester and TMEDA as starting materials has been developed.