Ester‐Directed Selective Olefination of Acrylates by Rhodium Catalysis

Abstract Ester‐directed olefination of acrylates via rhodium(III)‐catalysis was developed. Various alkenes were reacted with acrylates to give the desired products in high stereoselectivity. Mechanistic investigations revealed that ester‐directed CH bond activation was the key step to this reaction. magnified image