A radical-based 5-exo-dig cyclisation, initiated by addition of a trichloromethyl radical to an acyclic acetylenic ketone with an appropriately positioned double bond, has been employed to produce a variety of cyclic haloalkylidene cyclopentanones in moderate to excellent yields and with a high degree of stereoselectivity for the (E)-isomer. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.
A rhodium carbonyl complex, [RhCl(CO)(2)](2), serves as a catalyst of the intra- and inter-molecular Pauson-Khand reaction. By the use of the rhodium catalyst, cyclopentenone derivatives are prepared from various 1,6- and 1,7-enynes under 1 arm of CO. Furthermore, this rhodium-catalyzed reaction is accelerated by reducing partial pressure of CO to less than 1 atm. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.