Dicarbonyl derivatives, cyclopropanation using

The popularity of Cu(acac)2, where acac = acetylacetonato, as a precatalyst in alkene cyclopropanation using diazoesters has led to the investigation of chiral 1,3-dicarbonyls as a source of asymmetric induction in this process. Mathn et al. (26) report a selective cyclopropanation of styrene with a dimedone-derived diazocarbonyl in the presence of a camphor-derived diketone, Eq. 12. The reaction is con-... 

A few natural products which contain the cyclopropyl ring have been synthesized through metal catalysed cyclopropanation using dicarbonyl diazomethanes. ( )-Cycloeudesmol 63, isolated from marine alga Chondria oppositiclada, was synthesized via a sequence involving a copper catalysed cyclopropanation of a-diazo-/8-ketoester 61 to give the key intermediate 62 (equation 73)1 7,108. Similarly, the bicyclo[3.1.0]hexane derivative 65 was synthesized from the corresponding a-diazo-/8-ketoester 64 via the catalytic method and was converted into ( )-trinoranastreptene 66 (equation 74)109. Intramolecular cyclopropanation of -diazo-/i-ketoesters 67 results in lactones 68 which are precursors to 1-aminocyclopropane-l-carboxylic acids 69 (equation 75)110. 

Dicarbonyl(ri5-cyclopentadienyl)iron-alky] complexes represent useful precursors for iron-carbene complexes [47]. For example, iron-carbene complexes are intermediates in the acid-promoted reaction of Fp-alkyl ether derivatives with alkenes to provide cyclopropanes via a [2 + l]-cycloaddition (Scheme 1.16). 

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