An evidence of contact ion pair in β-(acyloxy)alkyl radical heterolysis during copper(I)-mediated synthesis of trisubstituted alkenes

The first evidence for a unified mechanism of heterolysis in β-(acyloxy)alkyl radical involving contact ion pair (CIP) is presented for both fragmentation and rearrangement of the acyloxy group in the reaction of 1-alkoxy-2,2,2-trichloroethyl acetate with 2 mol equiv each of CuCl and bpy in refluxing DCE under a N2 atmosphere and availed this reaction for the synthesis of Z-stereoselective trisubstituted alkenes. The stereochemistry of the trisubstituted alkenes was assigned by the uniform pattern of the chemical shift values of some relevant signals in 1H and 13C NMR spectra. This assignment was further supported by the X-ray diffraction spectroscopy of Z-1-chloro-2-(4-nitrobenzyloxy)vinyl acetates.