Five-membered rings polyene cyclization

Polyene Cyclization. Perhaps the most synthetically useful of the carbo-cation alkylation reactions is the cyclization of polyenes having two or more double bonds positioned in such a way that successive bond-forming steps can occur. This process, called polyene cyclization, has proven to be an effective way of making polycyclic compounds containing six-membered and, in some cases, five-membered rings. The reaction proceeds through an electrophilic attack and requires that the double bonds that participate in the cyclization be properly positioned. For example, compound 1 is converted quantitatively to 2 on treatment with formic acid. The reaction is initiated by protonation and ionization of the allylic alcohol and is terminated by nucleophilic capture of the cyclized secondary carbocation. 

Harding and his co-workers have shown that polyene cyclization termination by y-allenes proceeds exclusively via a six-membered ring vinylic cation rather than the alternative five-membered ring alkylic cation (Scheme 23). Johnson et... 

Jt-allyl complex can be generated after cyclization, as suggested by Takacs in a Fe(0)-catalyzed cyclization of polyenes. It also can be preformed if an active functional group is present in the allylic position. The palladium-catalyzed intramolecular cycloisomerization reaction of allylic acetates is an efficient method for constructing five- or six-membered rings [56, 57]. An asymmetric approach to this transformation has been studied and so far only poor enantioselectivity has been achieved (0-20% ee) [58]. Very recently, Zhang et al. also reported a Rh-catalyzed cycloisomerization involving a Jt-allylrhodium intermediate formed from an allylic halide [59]. 

Electrocyclic reactions are not limited to neutral polyenes. The cyclization of a pentadienyl cation to a cyclopentenyl cation offers a useful entry to five-membered carbocycUc compounds. One such reaction is the Nazarov cyclization of divinyl ketones. Protonation or Lewis acid complexation of the oxygen atom of the carbonyl group of a divinyl ketone generates a pentadienyl cation. This cation undergoes electrocyclization to give an allyl cation within a cyclopentane ring. The allyl cation can lose a proton or be trapped, for example by a nucleophile. Proton loss occurs to give the thermodynamically more stable alkene and subsequent keto-enol tautomerism leads to the typical Nazarov product, a cyclopentenone (3.220). 

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