Enabling the development of N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) catalyzed reactions: practical methods for the preparation of 1-acyl-2-alkylcycloalkenes from cycloalkanones

The synthesis of 1-acyl-2-alkylcycloalkenes from a variety of cycloalkanones has been achieved via either beta-keto enol phosphates or beta-bromoenones. Both methods exploit simple and readily scalable transformations allowing the preparation of the desired compounds to be achieved in three, or four steps, respectively. The utility of these strategies has been examined, resulting in the preparation of 17 disubstituted cycloalkenes