Cover Feature: Double Gold Activation of 1‐Ethynyl‐2‐(Phenylethynyl)Benzene Toward 5‐exo‐dig and 6‐endo‐dig Cyclization Reactions (Chem. Eur. J. 54/2017)

Abstract

In the dual gold catalytic conversion of 1‐ethynyl‐2‐(phenylethynyl)benzene to yield dibenzopentalene, a 5‐exo‐dig competes with a 6‐endo‐dig cyclization by formation of a five‐ and six‐membered ring, respectively. This stage is rather important since it is the selectivity‐determining step. The crucial competition between the formation of the five and six‐membered rings finishes either with the completeness of the catalytic cycle toward dibenzopentalene or by formation of an aryl intermediate, which stabilizes as 2‐phenyl‐naphthalene. More information can be found in the Full Paper by A. S. K. Hashmi, A. Toro‐Labbé et al. on page 13360.