Progress in the Construction of Spirocyclohexadienones via Alkyne-Involving Dearomatization

Abstract

Spirocyclohexadienones are not only widely present in bioactive molecules, but also act as key synthetic intermediates for the synthesis of natural products. Owing to the great importance of these compounds, their efficient synthesis has drawn considerable attention from synthetic chemists. In particular, there are many reports about the synthesis of spirocyclohexadienone derivatives via alkyne-involving dearomatization in the past few years. The success of these reactions benefits from the reaction mode: the activation of alkyne π bond by radicals, electrophiles, or metal catalysts under the conditions of photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, or chemical oxidation, and then the subsequent dearomatization process. The advances in electron-deficient, electron-ordinary, and electron-rich alkynes-participated dearomatization of phenolic derivatives to realize the efficient construction of spirocyclohexadienone derivatives in recent five years are systematically summarized. During the discussion, the used triggering ways are subdivided. At last, the prospects of this field are discussed.