An expeditious synthesis of natural and unnatural disubstituted maleic anhydrides

A facile entry to the synthesis of natural and unnatural substituted maleic anhydrides based on the Barton radical decarboxylation is described. The radicals, generated by the photolysis of N-hydroxy-2-thiopyridone esters derived from succinic and alkyl acids reacted, respectively, with electron deficient olefin phenyl maleimide by a consecutive two-step radical addition, afforded the corresponding disubstituted maleic anhydrides 1a–f.