Intramolecular Alkoxycyanation and Alkoxyacylation Reactions: New Types of Alkene Difunctionalizations for the Construction of Oxygen Heterocycles

Functionalized dihydrobenzofuran derivatives can be obtained by intramolecular alkoxycyanation and alkoxyacylation of alkenes (see scheme). In both transformations, selective activation of an OFG bond is accomplished by using a transition-metal catalyst. These transformations represent a conceptually new approach to metal-catalyzed alkene difunctionalization.