Dichlorocarbene addition to tricarbonyliron complexes of polyenes

Abstract

Dichlorocarbene adds to the unco-ordinated double bonds in the tricarbonyliron complexes of cycloheptatriene and myrcene to give (2) and (5) respectively. Copper(II) oxidation of (5) liberates the ligand (6). The tricarbonyliron complexes of ergosteryl acetate (11) and cyclo-octatetraene (12) fail to react with dichlorocarbene. The possibility of aromatic character in the organic ligand in (12) is discussed.