“…Our efforts were then directed toward the addition of a variety of nucleophiles to 7 . However, all attempts at condensing the following reagents, employing a wide range of operating conditions, were uniformly unsuccessful: C-centered nucleophiles (allylcopper reagents, allyltrimethylsilane in the presence of TBAF, 1-ethoxyvinylmagnesium bromide, 1-ethoxyvinylcerium dichloride); reducing agents (LiAlH 4 , (EtO) 3 AlLiH, catecholalane, DIBAL-H, NaBH 4 through the 1,3-benzoxathiolium tetrafluoroborate derivative, Et 3 SiH through the N -ethylnitrilium tetrafluoroborate derivative, Raney alloy in AcOH); alkali hydroxides (NaOH, KOH, LiOH). In contrast, a surprising outcome was observed when 7 was subjected to 1-ethoxyvinyllithium: dimer 8 was obtained, albeit in a modest yield of 18%.…”