Esters tandem vicinal difunctionalization

Enoate 3-substitution and 3-disubstitution cause a decrease in the rate of the initial conjugate addition step of the reaction sequence that is directly related to the steric bulk of the substituent.103,105 Equation (24) provides a representative case in the a-alkylation of enoates by means of conjugate amination-enol-ate alkylation followed by dehydroamination.106 When 3-substitution results in stereoisomeric ( )- and (Z)-alkenoate substrates, tandem difunctionalization typically proceeds with greater facility for ( )-isomers.64103 Obviously, when the double bond of the ester is part of a medium-sized ring, an ( )-alke-noate geometry is mandated in such cases, tandem vicinal difunctionalization proceeds with uniformly excellent results (equation 25).25... 

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