Attempts to improve the overall stereoselectivity of the Ireland-Claisen rearrangement.

With focus on the steric effects present in the transition states for the [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement, the substrate 5 has been designed to improve the overall stereoselectivity of the Ireland-Claisen rearrangement. Experimentally, it has been found that (1) only Z-6 rearranges to 7 at 80 degrees C and (2) E-6 isomerizes to Z-6 at 80 degrees C, thereby allowing the transformation of 5 into 7 in an almost quantitative yield. To illustrate the usefulness of this approach, two additional examples are given.