Tricarbonyliron complexes of 3-buten-2-one, 3-penten-2-one, and 4-phenyl-3-buten-2-one reacted with organolithium and Grignard reagents to afford 1,4-diketones in one step, some of the products are amenable to convertion to natural products.
This paper describes the finding that BF3 etherate effectuates the conjugate additions of copper(I) aldimines, generated in situ from lithium aldimines and Cu(I) halide, to α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds to produce 4-(N-alkylimino)-ketones, which give on acid hydrolysis 1,4-diketone derivatives.