Activation of Electron Deficient Cycloheptatrienes by Tricarbonyliron Complexation.

Abstract (1,6-Dimethoxycarbonyl-cycloheptatriene)Fe(CO)3, unlike its uncoordinated counterpart, readily reacts with TCNE to give the (3 + 2) adduct, and with NPTD to give a mixture of the (3 + 2), (4 + 2) and (5 + 2) adducts.