1,4-disubstituted and 1,4,5-trisubstituted 2-[(Benzotriazol-1-yl)methyl]pyrroles as versatile synthetic intermediates

The CH(2)Bt substituent, unlike previously used CH(2)X substituents, enables (i) the synthetic elaboration of pyrroles with unsubstituted ring positions and (ii) electrophilic as well as nucleophilic substitutions to give pyrroles of type pyrrolyl-2-CHENu, Thus, 1,4-disubstituted (7) and 1,4,5-trisubstituted 2-[(benzotriazol-1-yl)methyl]pyrroles (15) were easily prepared from the reaction of 5-(benzotriazol-1-yl)-1,2-epoxy-3-pentynes 4 or 14 with primary amines in i-PrOH. The 2-(benzotriazol-1-yl)methyl side chains of compounds 7 and 15 were elaborated by nucleophilic substitution and also by initial alkylation followed by replacement or elimination of the benzotriazolyl moiety to afford a variety of 1,2,4-trisubstituted (6, 8-9, 11-13) and 1,2,4,5-tetrasubstituted pyrroles (18, 20-22).