Access to Tetronic Acids via Silver-Catalyzed CO2 Incorporation into Conjugated Ynones.

Facile and versatile access to highly functionalized tetronic acids has been successfully achieved through the reaction of conjugated ynones with carbon dioxide. In the presence of a base, the enolates generated from the ynones capture CO2 via a carbon-carbon bond-forming reaction, accompanied by a 5-exo-dig cyclization reaction of the resulting carboxylate to the alkyne, activated by a silver catalyst. The present method should be applicable to the synthesis of a wide variety of tetronic acids.