The unusual migratory aptitude in a case of α-carbonyl cation-driven 1,2-migration

Abstract

α-Carbonyl cations were found to drive 1,2-carbon shift reactions with excellent selectivity. As opposed to traditional guidelines, this selectivity is based not on the electronic and steric properties of the migrating substituent but determined by the nature of the substituent remaining in the migrant carrying remnant. Therefore, the selectivity trend is reversed, which allowed us to realize a first example for a cation-driven selective migration favoring an alkynyl over an aryl substituent