Isomerization of 2,5-divinyltetrahydropyran and acid-catalyzed rearrangements of isomeric novel dihydropyrans

2,5-Divinyltetrahydropyran (1) can be isomerized using a ruthenium trichloride- triphenylphosphine catalyst to give 3,4-dihydro-3-vinyl-6-ethyl-2H-pyran (2) and 3,4-dihydro-3- ethylidene-6-ethyl-2H-pyran (3). These products give a variety of rearranged products on treatment with acid. The course of the reactions can be controlled by reaction conditions to give 4-ethyltoluene (5) or 3-hydroxymethyl-1-octen-6-one (4) from 2, and 3,4-dihydro-2-methyl-3-methylene-(6-ethyl-2H- pyran (7), 2,3,4-trimethyl-2-cyclohexen-1-one (8), or 3-hydroxymethyl-2-octen-6-one (6) from 3. All of these products (4–8) can be explained as arising by the initial opening of the dihydropyran to generate an unsaturated hydroxy ketone which then cyclizes to carbocyclic products.