Direct ruthenium-catalyzed C À C coupling of alkynes and vicinal diols to form b,g-unsaturated ketones occurs with complete levels of regioselectivity and good to complete control over the alkene geometry. Exposure of the reaction products to substoichiometric quantities of p-toluenesulfonic acid induces cyclodehydration to form tetrasubstituted furans. These alkyne-diol hydrohydroxyalkylations contribute to a growing body of merged redox-construction events that bypass the use of premetalated reagents and, hence, stoichiometric quantities of metallic by-products.Metal-catalyzed reductive coupling reactions of p-unsaturated reactants bypass the use of premetalated C-nucleophiles in a range of carbonyl and imine additions.[1] Despite significant advances, catalytic intermolecular reductive coupling reactions of simple alkenes or alkynes to ketones (activated or unactivated) remain uncommon. [2][3][4][5][6][7] In connection with efforts aimed at the development of hydrogenmediated reductive coupling reactions beyond hydroformylation, [1f,g,h] rhodium-or iridium-catalyzed hydrogenations of a-ketoesters in the presence of conjugated or nonconjugated alkynes were found to promote the formation of a-hydroxyesters (Scheme 1). [6b,c, 7] More recently, under the conditions of ruthenium(0)-catalyzed transfer hydrogenation, it was found that activated secondary alcohols engage in C À C coupling to unsaturated reactants to form products of hydrohydroxyalkylation. [8][9][10][11] Specifically, the catalytic CÀC coupling of a-hydroxy carbonyl compounds [8] or 1,2-diols [8d,f] with conjugated dienes, [8a,b,d,e] terminal olefins, [8c] and a,b-unsaturated esters [8f] was achieved. The feasibility of coupling secondary alcohols to alkynes [6,7,9,12] under the conditions of ruthenium(0)-catalyzed transfer hydrogenation was unclear, as ruthenium(0) complexes are efficient catalysts for alkyne [2+2+2] cycloaddition. [13,14] Here, we report that the ruthenium(0) catalyst formed in situ from [Ru 3 (CO) 12 ] and tricyclohexylphosphine (PCy 3 ) promotes regio-and stereoselective alkyne-diol hydrohydroxyalkylation to form a-hydroxyb,g-unsaturated ketones in good to excellent yields (Scheme 1). The reaction products engage in acid-catalyzed cyclodehydration to form tetrasubstituted furans. [15] In a preliminary experiment, racemic trans-1,2-cyclohexane diol (1 b) was exposed to 1-phenyl-1-propyne (2 a) under conditions established for the CÀC coupling of dienes to ahydroxy esters or a-hydroxy amides. [8a,b] The anticipated product of hydrohydroxyalkylation 3 b was formed, but in only 14 % yield [Eq. (1)]. In related rhodium-or iridiumcatalyzed alkyne-a-ketoester reductive coupling reactions using elemental hydrogen as the terminal reductant, [6b,c, 7] carboxylic acid co-catalysts were found to increase the rate and conversion. As supported by computational studies, [16] such acid co-catalysts bypass highly energetic four-centered transition structures for the direct hydrogenolysis of oxametallacyclic intermediates through...