Stereoselectivity organolithium tandem reactions

Krief has applied selenium chemistry to some anionic cascade cyclisations.128 For example, 293 can be cyclised in two successive 5-exo reactions to give a mixture of the stereoisomers of 297. If 294 is warmed to 0 °C, an alternative sort of tandem process occurs after cyclisation onto the alkene, the organolithium 295 undergoes an intramolecular displacement, stereoselectively generating the 5,3-fused system of 296. Similar intramolecular cyclopropanations (of a-bromo organolithiums) have been described by Hoffmann151 but are probably mediated by carbenes rather than a sequential cyclisation-substitution sequence. 

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