Cyclobutenone as a highly reactive dienophile: expanding upon Diels-Alder paradigms.

Cyclobutenone was employed as a dienophile in Diels-Alder cycloadditions, provide diverse and complex cycloadducts in good yields. Experimental outcomes indicated cyclobutenone to be more reactive than either cyclopentenone or cyclohexenone. In addition, cycloadducts bearing a strained cyclobutanone moiety were able to undergo regioselective ring expansions to produce corresponding cyclopentanones, lactones, and lactams, which are otherwise difficultly obtained by direct Diels-Alder reactions.