A-deprotonation of carbonyls

Base for a-Deprotonation of Carbonyl Compounds. Potassium hexamethyldisilazide, KN(TMS)2 (KHMDS) has been... 

The term Knoevenagel reaction however is used also for analogous reactions of aldehydes and ketones with various types of CH-acidic methylene compounds. The reaction belongs to a class of carbonyl reactions, that are related to the aldol reaction. The mechanism is formulated by analogy to the latter. The initial step is the deprotonation of the CH-acidic methylene compound 2. Organic bases like amines can be used for this purpose a catalytic amount of amine usually suffices. A common procedure, that uses pyridine as base as well as solvent, together with a catalytic amount of piperidine, is called the Doebner modification of the Knoevenagel reaction. 

Iron-acyl enolates such as 1, 2, and 3 react readily with electrophiles such as alkyl halides and carbonyl compounds (see Houben-Weyl, Vol. 13/9a p418). The reactions of these enolatc species with alkyl halides and similar electrophiles are discussed in Section D.1.1.1.3.4.1.3. To date, only the simple enolates prepared by a-deprotonation of acetyl and propanoyl complexes have been reacted with ketones or aldehydes. 

FIGURE 6.5 Transfer of acyl between the amino and hydroxyl groups of seryl. (A) Deprotonation of O-acylseryl- induces oxazolidine formation, which is followed by (B) rearrangement to A-acylseryl-. (C) Protonation of the carbonyl of A-acylseryl- by mineral acid results in dehydration to the oxazoline, which is followed by hydrolysis (D) at the double bond giving protonated O-acylseryl-. 

Deprotonation of carbonyl compounds by chiral amide bases followed by trapping with silylating agents or aldehydes has become a common method for de-symmetrizing prochiral and conformationally locked 4-substituted cyclohexanones and bicyclic ketones. The literature through 1997 has been reviewed [45]. 

Considering these heats of deprotonation, one wonders whether organolithium compounds should not be at least as suitable as lithium amides for effecting the deprotonation of carbonyl and carboxyl compounds. However, this is usually not the case, since organolithium compounds react almost always as nucleophiles rather than as bases. Organolithium compounds thus would add to the carbonyl carbon (Section 8.5) or engage in a substitution reaction at the carboxyl carbon (Section 6.5). 

The kinetic reprotonation by a series of carbonyl-based acids, of the lithium enolate obtained from 2,4-dimethyltetralone either by LDA-mediated deprotonation or by cleavage of its silyl enol ether, was studied by Eames (Scheme 71)352. The diastereoselective ratio, close to the thermodynamic value, obtained with methanol (pKa = 29 in DMSO) is probably due to equilibration. The difference observed in the presence of an additive was interpreted as the result of a fine balance between the coordinating ability, the intrinsic acidity, and probably the concentration of the enolic form of the cyclic and linear dicarbonyl acidic compounds. 

Several Lewis acid-base interactions between alkali metal cations and heteroatom-containing molecules are indispensable in the promotion of reactions involved in critically important and fundamental transformations—deprotonation with lithium amides at the a-hydrogens of carbonyl or imino compounds and the addition of organolithium compounds to such electrophilic substrates. Because it is impossible to cover the multitude of these and other closely related subjects, this chapter describes only briefly general aspects of current interest. 

The photoreduction of carbonyl compounds or aromatic hydrocarbons by amines was one of the early electron-transfer reactions to be studied. Observation of products from primary electron transfer depends on the facility of a deprotonation of the amine, which must be fast compared to back electron transfer. For amines without a hydrogens, quenching by back electron transfer is observed exclusively (Cohen et al., 1973). The solvent plays a quite important role since it determines the yield of radical ion pairs formed from the exciplex (Hirata and Mataga, 1984). 

The a-alkylation of carbonyl compounds by their conversion into nucleophilic enoiates or enolate equivalents and subsequent reaction with electrophilic alkylating agents provides one of the main avenues for regio- and stereo-selective formation of carbon-carbon a-bonds. " Classical approaches to a-alkylation typically involve the deprotonation of compounds containing doubly activated methylene or methine groups and having p/iTa values of 13 or below by sodium or potassium alkoxides in protic solvents. Since these conditions lead to monoenolates derived from deprotonation only at the a-site of the substrate, the question of the regioselectivity of C-alkylation does not arise (however, there is competition between C- and 0-alkylation in certain cases). In more recent years, dienolates of p-dicarbonyl compounds have been utilized in -alkylations with excellent success. 

Recently Yoshida et al. have employed silyl-stabilized a-alkoxy organolithium reagents for the synthesis of a variety of carbonyl compounds. Methoxy(trimethylsilyl)methane and methoxybis(trimethyl-silyl)methane, when deprotonated with Bu Li and Bu"Li respectively, give anions which can be alkylated with a variety of electrophiles. Electrolysis of a solution of the alkylated product in methanol yields, by virtue of the reduced oxidation potential of ethers a-substituted with silicon, either the dimethyl acetal or in the latter case the orthoester. The mildness of the electrolytic process recommends the method for the preparation of a variety of carbonyl compounds. 

DIBAL was used for the conjugate reduction to produce aluminum enolates in the presence of MeCu catalyst [39]. Unlike strong bases fhat readily deprotonate the a-hydrogen of carbonyl compounds, fhis mefhod tolerates a ketone carbonyl and its a hydrogen, and was fhus chemoselective as well as quantitatively reducing fhe a,/ -unsaturated ester (Scheme 6.19). 

Examination of electronic and thermodynamic factors in the aforementioned conventional enolate formation revealed that steric factors were of fundamental importance in fhe reaction. One alternative is to complex a carbonyl compound with a bulky Lewis acid (Fig. 6.13). Bulky aluminum reagents usually form relatively stable 1 1 complexes irreversibly wifh carbonyl compounds. We first hypothesized that even in the presence of a strong base (LDA or LTMP), a steric environment applied in the aluminum-carbonyl complex would kinetically adjust site-selective deprotonation of carbonyl compounds which offer multiple sites for enohzation and kinetically stabilize fhe resulting bulky enolates by retarding the rate of proton transfer or other undesirable side reactions. These fundamental considerations found particular application in fhe formation and reaction of novel aluminum enolates. 

Reactions involving a-deprotonation of the carbonyl sugars as aldols... 

In light of the anomalies described above, it is apparent that the Ireland model is an oversimplification, but a clearer picture has not yet emerged. Indeed, expecting such a simple model to account for kinetic selectivites in a number of solvent systems with a variety of carbonyl substrates and amide bases is asking a lot. There is some evidence that an 8-membered ring transition structure may be involved (deprotonation by a lithium amide open dimer ), and computational studies indicate that neither 6- nor 8-membered ring transition structures bear much resemblance to carbocyclic 6- or 8-membered rings. For a detailed discussion of these issues, see ref. [46]. 

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