Synthetic and mechanistic aspects of α-alkylation and α-arylation of β-dicarbonyl compoundsvia their transition metal complexes

Some transition metal complexes of β-dicarbonyl compounds react with electrophiles at α-C. These reactions, carried out under neutral conditions, offer a broader scope than their conventional counterparts, and are generally performed in the presence of stoichiometric or catalytic amounts of strong bases. Mechanistic observations using different reaction conditions are also relevant from a synthetic point of view. Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 3, pp. 418–427, March, 1997.