Hydrogenolysis of 7-phenyltricyclo[4.1.0.02,7]heptan-1-carboxylic acid. Synthesis of ketones with tricyclo[4.4.0.02,7]decane and tricyclo[5.4.0.02,8]undecane skeletons

Hydrogenation of 7-phenyltricyclo[4.1.0.0^2,7]heptane-1-carboxylic acid over Raney nickel occurred in the syn-stereoselective fashion to give anti-7-phenylbicyclo[3.1.1]heptane-exo-6-carboxylic acid. The latter was used to synthesize 4,5-benzotricyclo[4.4.0.0^2,7]dec-4-en-3-one and two isomeric higher homologs, 5,6-benzotricyclo[5.4.0.0^2,8]undec-5-en-3-and-4-ones.