“…The reaction is proposed to involve the formal trans-palladium-boration of the internal alkyne, cis-addition of an alkyne, dearomative spiroannulation, and ring expansion process, in which iodide is proposed to act as a pivotal ligand to trigger the reaction and drive the cis–trans isomerization of boroalkenyl palladium species. This reaction is impressive considering that the following challenges encountered can be overcome: (a) while much success has been achieved on transition-metal-catalyzed cis-selective borylative 1,2-difunctionalization of alkynes, relatively fewer reports have been disclosed on such reactions involving a trans-selective mode; (b) the dearomatization process is thermodynamically disfavored owing to the high aromatic stabilization energy of planar arenes; , and (c) a number of possible side reactions have to be avoided such as the protonation of highly reactive organopalladium intermediates, diborylative addition, and protodeborylation and cyclopolymerization of alkynes. , In the present paper, we report our synthesis together with study of the reaction mechanism.…”