With the optimized conditions in hand, the reaction scope was investigated. As presented in
Scheme 1, the results revealed that the current strategy turned out to be a general and efficient method for the synthesis of oxyalkylated enamides. The gram-scale reaction between
1 and
2 gave rise to
3 in 71% yield with 5.9:1
E/Z ratio (Supporting information for details). Both electron-donating (MeO) and electron-withdrawing (F, Br, CF
3 and CO
2Et) groups on the phenyl ring at the
para-, ortho-, or
meta-position of enamides were tolerable and furnished the corresponding products
4–
10 in moderate to good yields with good
E/Z selectivity. Multi-substituted enamides were also used and provided the target products
11 and
12 with good results. Naphthyl-substituted substrate was also used and delivered the desired enamide
13 in 70% yield with 3.3:1
E/Z ratio. In addition, the R
1 and R
2 substituents were also examined. The desired oxyalkylated enamides
14 and
15 were obtained in 75% and 72% yields, respectively. The
N-alkyl enamides without a Bn group were also tolerable and gave good yields of the products
16 and
17, with good
E/Z ratios. To further examine the generality of the strategy, other reaction partners, such as vinylnaphthalene,
N-arylacrylamide, and
N-methacryloyl-
N-methylbenzamide, were introduced to the reaction system and the desired oxyalkylated alkene, oxindole, and isoquinolinedione were obtained with good reaction efficiency (
18–
20). Next, we studied the versatility of the reaction with various ether phosphonium salts, which could be easily prepared from the corresponding commercially available halides. Tetrahydropyran derived phosphonium salt worked well to afford the desired product in 78% yield with 4.6:1
E/Z ratio (
21). Acyclic ether, including dimethyl ether, ethyl methyl ether, benzyl methyl ether, and dimethoxyethane, derived phosphonium salts could be readily employed to forge a variety of enamides with satisfactory results (
22–
25). In addition, TMS-substituted ether phosphonium salt also reacted smoothly to give the desired product (
26). It was noteworthy that phosphonium salt prepared from ester was also effective to furnish the oxyalkylated enamides (
27).