Allylic phosphate esters samarium diiodide

Allylic halides are not as readily accessible as allylic alcohols or their ester derivatives. Thus, the requirement that allylic halides must be used as precursors for carbonyl addition reactions in conjunction with magnesium and other similar reductants is a severe restriction limiting the convenience of these routes to homoallylic alcohols. In this regard, samarium diiodide can be used to great advantage, because substrates other than allylic halides are suitable precursors for such transformations. For example, allylic phosphate esters have been reported to couple with carbonyl substrates in the presence of Smh (equation 15). Since esters and nitriles are unreactive under these conditions, the Smh-mediated process is likely to be more chemoselective than those promoted by magnesium or lithium. 

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