The facile preparation of alkenyl metathesis synthons

We report synthetic methodology allowing the preparation of any length alkenyl halide from inexpensive starting reagents. Standard organic transformations were used to prepare straight chain alpha-olefin halides in excellent overall yields with no detectable olefin isomerization and full recovery of any unreacted starting material. Reported transformations can be used for the selective incorporation of pure a-olefin metathesis sites in highly functionalized molecules. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.