A Double Carbon-Carbon Bond Activation of 8-Quinolinyl Cyclopropyl Ketone by Chlorobis(ethylene)rhodium(I) Dimer

The activation of C-C bonds in organic molecules is one of current interests in organometallic chemistry especially due to its potential utility in synthetic method to form carbon skeleton, and a number of strategies have been devised in order to cleave C-C bond.1 Among those strategies, it is the most common way to utilize the relief of ring strain energy of strained molecules such as cyclopropane, cyclobutane, and their derivatives.2 Recently, a chelation-assistance protocol utilizing cyclometalation was developed to be regarded as one of the most promising ways as it could solve a problem concerning accessibility of metal complexes toward a C-C bond to be cleaved.3 Quinoline derivatives are frequently used as cyclometalation models because they form very stable metal complexes,4 and many preparation methods of quinolines are known.5 In the course of our studies on