Heterocyclic compounds seven-membered ring opening

The ease of ring formation helped us to make five-membered cyclic acetals from ketones and a seven-membered heterocyclic compound (see Chapter 6). In this chapter we have seen how three-membered epoxides are formed. Ring formation is generally preferred to bimolecular reactions forming open chain compounds providing that the ring is three-, five-, six-, or seven-membered. Four-membered ring are a special case discussed in Chapter 29 where all these points are developed more fully. 

---