trans-RhCl(CO)(PPh3)2-catalyzed monomeric and dimeric cycloisomerization of propargylic 2,3-dienoates. Establishment of alpha,beta-unsaturated delta-lactone rings by cyclometallation.

Cyclometallation of two unsaturated carbon-carbon bonds usually requires the application of low-valent metal catalysts, which could cleave the propargylic ester linkage. Thus, it is desirable to identify a catalyst which could undergo cyclometallation without cleaving the propargylic ester linkage. In this paper, we used trans-RhCl(CO)(PPh(3))(2) to realize the cyclometallation of propargylic 2,3-dienoates. The substituents at the 4-position of allenoate moiety nicely control the reaction pathway: when the 4-position of propargylic 2,3-dienoate 1 was monosubstituted with an aryl group, the bicyclic intermediate 7 formed by the cyclometallation could highly selectively undergo carbometalation with the alkyne moiety in the second molecule of propargylic 2,3-dienoate 1 to afford metallabicyclic intermediates 8a or 8b. Subsequent reductive elimination would afford 9, which could undergo an intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction resulting in the formation of polycyclic bis(delta-lactone)-containing structures 2. The intermediate could be trapped by adding 3-methoxyprop-1-yne affording cyclization-aromatization product 4p highly selectively. If the substituent at the 4-positon of the 2,3-allenoate moiety has a beta-H atom, sequential unimolecular cyclometallation/beta-H elimination/reductive elimination occurs to afford cross-conjugated 5(Z)-alkylidene-4-alkenyl-5,6-dihydropyran-2-ones. The Z-stereochemistry of the exo double bond was determined by the cyclometallation. Some of the alpha,beta-unsaturated delta-lactones could be easily converted to other synthetically useful compounds via reduction reaction, hydrogenation, and iodination/coupling protocol.