Lead tetraacetate oxidative ring-opening of a series of substituted catechols provides the corresponding substituted cis, cis-2, 4-diene-1, 6-dioates (1–10) in fair to good yields. A number of improvements on Wiessler's procedure for this reaction are reported. The analogous copper (I) chloride/pyridine/methanol ring-opening was found to be ineffective as a general synthetic method for this transformation.
