Reactions of vinylidenecyclopropanes with diphenyl diselenide in the presence of AIBN and further transformation to produce new naphthalene derivatives.

The reactions of vinylidencyclopropanes 1 with diphenyl diselenide 2 in the presence of AIBN produced the corresponding products 4 or 5 in moderate to good yields under mild conditions. The transformation of 4 to the corresponding methylenecyclopropanes 6 was achieved by treatment with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in toluene, and these were further transformed to the corresponding naphthalene derivatives 7 by treatment with 30 mol % of TfOH in dichloromethane.