Mutual Cooperation in the Formal Allyl Alcohol Nucleophilic Substitution and Hydration of Alkynes for the Construction of γ-Substituted Ketones.

Mutual cooperation in the formal allyl alcohol nucleophilic substitution reaction and hydration of an alkyne has been utilized in the presence of a gold catalyst to give a series of γ-functionalized ketones with high to excellent yields. This reaction actually involved an intramolecular O-H insertion cyclization of an alkyne to form the dihydrofuran intermediate, which was followed by the nucleophilic addition ring-opening of a dihydrofuran to give the target compound.