Reaction of transition metal carbonyl with heterocyclic systems-IV. The reaction of Fe₂(CO)₉ with 3-phenyl-2-oxa-3-aza-[2.2.2]oct-5-ene

The structure of the products from the titled reaction were determined. The most interesting ones are 11 and 12 which lack the original oxygen atom present in the starting material (8). In an attempt to probe the mechanism of the reaction, the reactivity of the dialkyl derivatives 15 and 16 toward Fe₂(CO)₉ was studied. An intermediate complex was isolated from the reaction of 16 with Fe₂(CO)₉. Its structure was determined by X-ray crystallography (Fig. 2). A reaction sequence was proposed and depicted in Scheme 1.