Co-Catalyzed Conjugate Addition of Alkynes to α,β-Unsaturated Ketones

Significance

The conjugate addition of alkynes to α,β-unsaturated carbonyl/carbonyl equivalent compounds is one of the most straightforward and powerful means for the synthesis of chiral internal alkynes from commercially available achiral substrates. While there exist several reports of such conjugate addition reactions using other transition metals, there has been recent interest to utilize cobalt in many known C-C bond-forming reactions to avoid the use of more rare and expensive metal catalysts.

Review: G. Cahiez, A. Moyeux Chem. Rev. 2010, 110, 1435-1462.