Regio- and diastereoselective cyclization reactions of free and masked 1,3-dicarbonyl dianions with 1,2-dielectrophiles.

Abstract

Despite their simplicity and synthetic usefulness, cyclisation reactions of 1,3-dicarbonyl dianions with 1,2-dielectrophiles are problematic, since both dianions and 1,2-dielectrophiles are highly reactive compounds (low reactivity matching). In addition, 1,2-dielectrophiles are often rather labile, and reactions with nucleophiles can result in polymerisation, decomposition, formation of open-chained products, elimination or SET-reactions. These intrinsic limitations can be overcome by a proper reactivity tuning and by the use of electroneutral dianion equivalents (masked dianions) in Lewis acid catalysed reactions. The cyclisations reported herein allow for an efficient, regio- and stereoselective one-pot synthesis of biologically relevant ring systems.