Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.137, No.30, 9579-9582, 2015
An Arylative Ring Expansion Cascade of Fused Cyclobutenes via Short-Lived Intermediates with Planar Chirality
An arylative ring expansion cascade has, been developed for the synthesis of medium-sized, carbocycles from fused cyclobutenes. This reaction proceeds through a short-lived cis,trans-cycloalkadiene intermediate that is formed by thermal 4 pi electrocyclic ring opening. Chirality transfer experiments provide direct evidence for the transient generation of the intermediate.