Design and Synthesis of Angularly Annulated Spirocyclics via Enyne Metathesis and the Diels-Alder Reaction as Key Steps

We have developed a simple and an efficient route to a range of angularly fused spirocycles by the application of enyne metathesis and the Diels-Alder reaction as key steps. The enyne metathesis protocol has been further extended to the dibenzylation of indane-1,3-dione by using cross-enyne metathesis in the presence of hexa-1,5-diene with the aid of Grubbs' 1st generation catalyst followed by an aromatization sequence with DDQ.