Alkynes Dotz annulation

The intermolecular Pauson-Khand annulation using dicobalt hexacarbonyl-alkyne complexes met only with limited success, possibly because of the higher energy of the cobalt-carbonyl bond. In contrast, chromium carbonyls dissociate more easily, and the reactions of metallocarbenes of chromium, e.g., the Dotz annulation of alkynes, are improved by sonication. 

The stereoselectivity of the Buchi-Paterno reaction between 3-hydroxy-2,3-dihydrofuran and benzophenone was found to be influenced by solvent, temperature and steric effect <06TL2527>. A Dotz benzannulation involving a dihydrofuran chromium carbene complex and an alkyne was employed to form the aflatoxin skeleton, providing the annulated product as the only regioisomer <06TL2299>. Cycloaddition involving 2,3-dihydrofuran, 1-aminoanthraquinone and salicy aldehyde was catalyzed by... 

A comprehensive treatment of the benzannulation of Fischer carbene complexes with alkynes is not possible in this review, and thus instead the material presented here will hopefully serve to give the reader an overview of its scope and limitations. The first report of this reaction was in 1975 by Dotz in which he describes the formation of the naphthol chromium tricarbonyl complex (236) from the reaction of the phenyl chromium complex (la) with diphenylacetylene. In the intervening years over 100 papers have been published describing various aspects of this reaction.The reaction of the generic cartene complex (233 Scheme 34) with alkynes will serve to focus the organization of the scope and limitations of the benzaimulation reaction. The issues to be considered are (i) the regioselectivity with unsymmetri-cal alkynes (ii) possible mechanisms (iii) applications in natural product syntheses (iv) the effect of substitution on the aryl or alkenyl substituent of the carbene carbon (v) functionality on the alkyne (vi) effects of the solvent and the concentration of the alkyne (vii) tandem applications with other reactions of carbene complexes (viii) reactions where aromatization is blocked (cyclohexadienone annulation) (ix) annulation of aryl versus alkenyl carbene complexes (x) the effect of the ligands L on the metal (xi) the effect of the ancilliary substituent RX and (xii) reactions with —C X functionality. 

The DOtz reaction was traditionally carried out in ethereal solvents for many years more recently solvents of low coordinating ability have been found to be superior in most situations, with yields in excess of 80<7o available from annulation of simple alkynes to arylcarbenes in hexane [13]. In fact, it has become increasingly clear that manipulation of reaction conditions, including solvent, temperature, and concentration, can be used in a synthetically useful way to drastically alter product distributions (see Sections 5.2.2 and 5.2.3). Additionally, dry-state adsorption techniques, which have expanded the utility of the Pauson-Khand reaction (see Section 5.3.3), show promise for increased reaction rates and yields in the D6tz reaction [14]. 

---