A rhenium-catalyzed method employing tetrahydropyran-substituted propargyl ethers as practical nondiazo carbene precursor for the efficient synthesis of vinylcyclopropanes (VCPs) is described. This method features a sequential 1,2-/1,5-hydride migration process to generate reactive vinyl rhenium carbenes, enabling subsequent cyclopropanation with a wide range of alkenes under user-friendly conditions. Notably, this operationally simple protocol features a broad substrate scope and provides a readily accessible starting material for assembling synthetically valuable VCPs. Furthermore, this method demonstrates significant potential in natural product synthesis.
Wu et al. (Sat,) studied this question.