Samarium Metal Promoted Facile C-Acetylation of Baylis-Hillman Adducts in the Presence of Iron(III) Chloride and Iodine

A novel and efficient strategy for the C-acetylation of Baylis-Hillman adducts has been described. Promoted by Sm(0)/Ac 2 O/FeCl 3 /I 2 , the present method allows for the efficient con-version of Morita-Baylis-Hillman adducts to their corresponding 2-alkylidene-4-oxoalkanoate derivatives and reduction products.