Silver‐Catalyzed Incorporation of Carbon Dioxide into Propargylic Alcohols

The combined use of a catalytic amount of silver acetate and a stoichiometric amount of DBU efficiently catalyzed the incorporation of CO 2 under mild reaction conditions into a wide range of propargylic alcohols bearing a terminal or an internal triple bond to afford the corresponding cyclic carbonates in high‐to‐excellent yields. All the cyclic carbonates obtained from the reaction were found to be single isomers. The geometries were determined to be ( Z ) by X‐ray crystal structure analysis and NOE experiments.(© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2007)