Rhodium-Catalyzed Carbene Transfer Reactions for Sigmatropic Rearrangement Reactions of Selenium Ylides

The rearrangement of selenium ylides is even today almost unexplored, although it would provide access to important organoselenium compounds with broad downstream applications. In this report, the first systematic study of sigmatropic rearrangement reactions of selenium ylides using a simple rhodium catalyst with catalyst loadings as low as 0.01 mol % is described. Selenium oxide pyrolysis of the rearrangement products gives access to important 1,1-disubstituted butadienes.