Reactions of polar dienes with o-quinones

Abstract

The behaviour of various types of polar dienes towards halogenated ortho quinones has been investigated in a number of representative cases. As compared to the commonly used para analogues, o-quinones provide a wide range of products that indicate a keener response to the nature, number, and position of substituents on both reactants. 3-Halogenated-o-naphthoquinones 1 and 2 react smoothly with a representative vinologous ketene acetal 3, vinylketene acetals 4 and 5, and a monooxygenated diene 6 to provide variously substituted phenanthrenequinones 7–11. Only monooxygenated dienes on the other hand add to o-benzoquinones 14–16 and give convenient syntheses of the corresponding o-naphthoquinones 18–20. Keywords: cycloaddition, o-naphthoquinones, phenanthrenequinones, regiospecificity.