Monoallylation and benzylation of dicarbonyl compounds with alcohols catalysed by a cationic cobalt(iii) compound.

Monoallylation and monoalkylation of diketones and ß-keto esters with allylic and benzylic alcohols catalysed by [Cp*Co(CH3CN)3][SbF6]2 (I) are reported. The method does not require any additive and affords regioselective products. The mechanistic investigations were done by in situ 1H NMR spectroscopy as well as control experiments. It has been shown that reactions proceed via η3-allyl complex formation or ally ether intermediate. The alkylation takes place via only ether intermediate. The resulting allylated and alkylated products have been used for the synthesis of eleven new trisubstituted pyrazoles and one pyrazolone.

Regioselective Synthesis of Fused Furans by Decarboxylative Annulation of α,ß-Alkenyl Carboxylic Acid with Cyclic Ketone: Synthesis of Di-Heteroaryl Derivatives.

α,ß-Alkenyl carboxylic acids undergo CuII -mediated decarboxylative annulation reactions with aliphatic cyclic ketones to provide synthetically valuable di-heterocycles. The annulation process tolerates a variety of aliphatic ketones and heterocyclic alkenyl carboxylic acids, producing substituted fused furan derivatives with complete regioselectivity. The current protocol offers a synthetically applicable pathway to construct a variety of oligo-heterocycles through Cu-mediated single-electron transfer and decarboxylation. Notably, synthesis of relatively inaccessible di-heterocycles has been achieved successfully using this protocol.