Nickel isocyanides alkyne reactions

The direct combination of selenium and acetylene provides the most convenient source of selenophene (76JHC1319). Lesser amounts of many other compounds are formed concurrently and include 2- and 3-alkylselenophenes, benzo[6]selenophene and isomeric selenoloselenophenes (76CS(10)159). The commercial availability of thiophene makes comparable reactions of little interest for the obtention of the parent heterocycle in the laboratory. However, the reaction of substituted acetylenes with morpholinyl disulfide is of some synthetic value. The process, which appears to entail the initial formation of thionitroxyl radicals, converts phenylacetylene into a 3 1 mixture of 2,4- and 2,5-diphenylthiophene, methyl propiolate into dimethyl thiophene-2,5-dicarboxylate, and ethyl phenylpropiolate into diethyl 3,4-diphenylthiophene-2,5-dicarboxylate (Scheme 83a) (77TL3413). Dimethyl thiophene-2,4-dicarboxylate is obtained from methyl propiolate by treatment with dimethyl sulfoxide and thionyl chloride (Scheme 83b) (66CB1558). The rhodium carbonyl catalyzed carbonylation of alkynes in alcohols provides 5-alkoxy-2(5//)-furanones (Scheme 83c) (81CL993). The inclusion of ethylene provides 5-ethyl-2(5//)-furanones instead (82NKK242). The nickel acetate catalyzed addition of r-butyl isocyanide to alkynes provides access to 2-aminopyrroles (Scheme 83d) (70S593). 

Disubstituted isocoumarins arise from the copper(II)-catalyzed addition of o-halobenzoic acids to active internal alkynes (13JOC1660), rhodium(III)-mediated oxidative coupling ofbenzoic acids with disubsti-tuted alkynes (13T4454), palladium(II)-catalyzed tandem annulation reaction of o-alkynylbenzoates with methyl vinyl ketone (13T8626), and nickel(II)-promoted t-butyl isocyanide insertion in 2-(o-bromophenyl)-1-ethanones followed by hydrolysis (Scheme 69) (13SC3262). 

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