Palladium-Catalyzed Hydrocarbonylative Cyclization of 1,5-Dienes.

A novel and atom-economic palladium-catalyzed isomerization-hydrocarbonylative cyclization reaction of 1,5-dienes to 2-alkylidenecyclopentanones has been developed, which provides a rapid and straightforward approach to 2-alkylidenecyclopentanones with high stereoselectivity. The reaction was found to proceed via alkene isomerization and selective hydrocarbonylative cyclization to generate 2-alkylidenecyclopentanones with high selectivity.