Nonconjugated polyenes oxidation

Oxidative coupling of organometallic precursors with alkenes, alkynes, conjugated and nonconjugated polyenes and polyalkynes remains the main method of synthesizing various classes of five-membered rings with other elements. However, some alternative methods do exist. 

Ozonolysis as used below is the oxidation process involving addition of ozone to an alkene to form an ozonide intermediate which eventually leads to the final product. Beyond the initial reaction of ozone to form ozonides and other subsequent intermediates, it is important to recall that the reaction can be carried out under reductive and oxidative conditions. In a general sense, early use of ozonolysis in the oxidation of dienes and polyenes was as an aid for structural determination wherein partial oxidation was avoided. In further work both oxidative and reductive conditions have been applied . The use of such methods will be reviewed elsewhere in this book. Based on this analytical use it was often assumed that partial ozonolysis could only be carried out in conjugated dienes such as 1,3-cyclohexadiene, where the formation of the first ozonide inhibited reaction at the second double bond. Indeed, much of the more recent work in the ozonolysis of dienes has been on conjugated dienes such as 2,3-di-r-butyl-l,3-butadiene, 2,3-diphenyl-l,3-butadiene, cyclopentadiene and others. Polyethylene could be used as a support to allow ozonolysis for substrates that ordinarily failed, such as 2,3,4,5-tetramethyl-2,4-hexadiene, and allowed in addition isolation of the ozonide. Oxidation of nonconjugated substrates, such as 1,4-cyclohexadiene and 1,5,9-cyclododecatriene, gave only low yields of unsaturated dicarboxylic acids. In a recent specific example... 

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