Tandem Enyne Metathesis and Claisen Rearrangement: A Versatile Approach to Conjugated Dienes of Variable Substitution Patterns

Abstract

To extend the versatility of the ruthenium carbene-promoted enyne metathesis, it was combined with an Ireland ester enolate Claisen rearrangement. This reaction sequence provided conjugated dienes of higher substitution pattern than that obtained through a cross-enyne metathesis alone. The Ireland-Claisen was conducted across both acyclic and cyclic dienes produced from cross-metathesis and methylene-free enyne metathesis, respectively. In the case of cyclodienes, the Ireland-Claisen rearrangement produced s-trans locked dienes which underwent mode-selective ene reaction. The tandem, sequential use of the Ireland-Claisen rearrangement also proved suitable for chirality transfer originating from chiral propargylic alcohols. Last, the tandem metathesis/Ireland-Claisen was utilized to access 4-substituted-3,5-cyclohexadiene diol derivatives, which are valuable chiral intermediates for natural product synthesis. The combination of this pericyclic reaction with a catalytic metathesis reaction extends the versatility of cross-metathesis since additional diene motifs can be accessed.