Experimental and theoretical investigation into the gold-catalyzed reactivity of cyclopropenylmethyl acetates

Cyclopropenylmethyl acetates have been shown to undergo rapid and stereoselective gold catalyzed rearrangement to Z-acetoxydienes in high yield. DFT calculations have shown that while several reaction pathways can be envisaged only a single, ring-opening one operates. © 2010 American Chemical Society.