Abstract: | The system chlorine dioxide–dimethylformamide in combination with or without a catalytic amount of MoCl5, CeCl3, ZrOCl2, or VO(acac)2 induces oxidative chlorination of a number of bicyclic terpene alcohols and vicinal diols. 2α-Chloropinan-3-one, 3α-chloro-10β-pinan-4-one, 5α-chloro-3α-hydroxycaran-4-one, 5β-chloro-3β-hydroxycaran-4-one, and 4α-chloro-2α-hydroxypinan-3-one were thus synthesized in good preparative yields. |