Cyclopropane divinyl, sigmatropic rearrangement

Davies and co-workers [12, 35] have exploited one particular aspect of the asymmetric cyclopropanation of alkenes with vinyl diazoacetates, namely, application to substrates suitable for subsequent Cope rearrangement. Cyclopropanation of dienes with predominant cfs-1,2-divinyl diastereoselection makes possible subsequent facile [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement with entry to 1,4-cycloheptadienes or bicyclic dienes. Two such examples employing cyclopenta-diene and penta-l,3-diene as substrates and the rhodium(II) prolinate catalyst, Rh2(2S-TBSP)4 in Fig. 1, are shown in Eq. (6) and Eq. (7),respectively cfs-l,2-di-vinylcyclopropanes are presumed to be intermediates in these annulation reactions. In contrast, ethyl diazoacetate and styrene with the prolinate catalyst (Fig. 

The mechanism of the thermal and photochemical rearrangement is believed to proceed as shown (1 - 2), with the dilemma of concerted vs. diradical nature not definitely resolved for all cases. A comparison of energy parameters for the thermolysis of the parent 1,2-divinyl-cyclopropane and of l-(hex-l-enyl)-2-vinylcyclopropane ( - and Z-isomers, tram- and cis-cyclopropanes) has been reported. When both alkenes bear a Z-positioned substituent, the rearrangement of the divinylcyclopropane system becomes very slow and other processes, such as the [1,5] sigmatropic shift of alkyl(vinyl)cyclopropanes or the vinylcyclopropane to cyclo-pentene rearrangement, may compete (see also Section 2.4.3.). Both the mechanism and the applications of this rearrangement have been reviewed. 

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