Palladium-catalyzed silaborative carbocyclizations of 1,6-diynes

An addition/cyclization reaction of 1,6-diynes was developed for the synthesis of highly substituted 1,2-dialkylidenecycloalkanes. In this work, 1,6-diynes reacted with (dimethylphenylsilyl)pinacol-borane in the presence of a palladium catalyst to afford 1,2-dialkylidenecycloalkanes bearing silyl and boryl groups with a (Z,Z)-configuration in good to excellent yields. Moreover, the corresponding products could be easily converted into other synthetically useful compounds. This protocol provides an efficient and practical method of heteroelement-element linkage addition to the unsaturated 1,6-diynes.