Oxaallylic anions aldol reaction

The enolates (48) and (49) of the transition metals tungsten, rhenium and molybdenum can be successfully prepared by the nucleophilic displacement of a-chloro ketones and a-chloro esters with the appropriate transition metal anion (Scheme 6). They are isolated as C-bound enolate derivatives and, except for the rhenium enolate (49), do not undergo thermal aldol additions to benzaldehyde. However, Bergman and Heathcock et al. have found that an aldol reaction of complex (48) with benzaldehyde can occur on irradiation via the rearranged q -oxaallyl derivative (50), where the metal aldolate (51) can then be... 

---