Cyclic acid anhydrides (succinic and glutaric anhydrides and some of their derivatives) undergo fast Barbier‐type reactions mediated by samarium diiodide in the presence of catalytic amounts of nickel diiodide (1 mol‐% with respect to SmI2), to give disubstituted lactones in high yields. Without NiI2 no reaction occurs. Various alkyl and allyl iodides can be used. In these reactions the formation of a samarium keto carboxylate intermediate is likely; as a matter of fact, keto carboxylic acids react under similar conditions to also yield disubstituted lactones. It is demonstrated that lactonisation occurs during hydrolysis of the reaction.

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ChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 100 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract of an article which was published elsewhere, please select a “Full Text” option. The original article is trackable via the “References” option.