Mechanism and Origins of Product Selectivity of Au‐Catalyzed Coupling Benzisoxazoles with Ynamides: A Computational Study

Au(I)‐catalyzed coupling of benzisoxazoles and ynamides was recently reported to synthesize challenging indoloquinoline core structures. In this report, we employed DFT methods to elucidate the mechanistic details of this reaction. The results reveal that the catalytic cycle involves initial coupling of ynamide with benzisoxazole, simultaneous ring opening of the isoxazole unit and attack of the dimethoxybenzene (DMOB) unit to gold carbenoid,...