Abstract
Photochemical reactions of norbornadiene with substituted acetylenes in the presence of Fe(CO)~5~ gave various products of different types, depending on the nature of the acetylene. The results are summarized in Table 1. The cyclopentanone 1 was always formed in these reactions. In the reaction of disubstituted acetylenes such as dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate and ethyl phenylpropiolate, the cyclopentenones 2 and 5 were formed, respectively. By contrast, propiolic esters produced the cyclohexenones 3 and 4, in which the ester group was attached on the ฮฒ carbon with respect to the keto group. Plausible mechanisms for the formation of these products are shown in Schemes 7 and 8. The reaction of diphenylacetylene gave the cyclohexendione 7 as well as the cyclopentenone 6. Two enedione products 8 and 9 were obtained from the reaction of phenylacetylene. Compound 9 was converted to the aromatic diacetate 13 by heating with acetic anhydride in pyridine. On irradiation in the presence of Fe(CO)~5~ norbornene reacted similarly with dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate and phenylacetylene to give the cyclopentenone 14 and the cyclohexenone 15, respectively. Compound 15, upon heating, isomerized to hydroquinone 16, which on acetylation gave the diacetate 17.