Cyclopropanes from organozinc compounds

Functionalized zinc carbenoids have been prepared from carbonyl compounds by an indirect strategy. The deoxygenation of a carbonyl compound to an organozinc carbenoid can be induced by a reaction with zinc and TMSCl. Therefore, the aldehyde or ketone, when treated with TMSCl or l,2-bis(chlorodimethylsilyl)ethane in the presence of an alkene, generates the cyclopropanation product. This method is quite effective for the production of alkoxy-substituted cyclopropane derivatives. A 55% yield of the... 

Miscellaneous Reactions of Organozinc Compounds which Give Cyclopropane Derivatives from Olefins... 

The intramolecular Wurtz-type coupling of dihaloorganic compounds with use of metallic zinc is a classical synthetic route to cyclic compounds. For example, cyclopropane derivatives can be prepared from 1,3-dihalo-propanes (29, 189a, 248, 451), and cyclobutane derivatives from 1,4-dihalobutanes (71). These reactions presumably proceed via the intermediate formation of organozinc compounds. The reaction of diethylzinc with esters of a,a -dibrominated aliphatic dicarboxylic acids leads to the... 

The first reaction is a variation on Simmons-Smith cyclopropanation. Though strictly a carbenoid rather than a carbene, it delivers a CH2 group from an organozinc compound bound to an oxygen atom, in this case the OMe group. Only that alkene reacts. 

Organozinc carbenoids generated from aryl and a,)8-unsaturated carbonyl compounds by treatment with zinc and l,2-bis(chlorodimethylsilyl)ethane have been trapped with alkenes to give cyclopropanes. The reaction is limited as it cannot be applied to all carbonyl compounds in general examples are the formation of 25 and 26. ... 

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