Efficiency of Acid‐ and Mercury‐Catalyzed Cyclization Reactions in the Synthesis of Tetrahydrofurans from Allylsilyl Alcohols

Abstract

The scope of the acid-catalyzed and mercury-catalyzed cyclization reactions of allylsilyl alcohols is described. This methodology has been found to be an efficient approach to the synthesis of highly substituted tetrahydrofurans. The stereoselectivity of the cyclization is dependent both on the substitution of the starting alcohol and on the catalyst. A plausible mechanism has been proposed that is consistent with the results.