A-Nitrile anions

The conjugate addition of unstabilized enolates to various acceptors was conceptually recognized by early researchers however, complications were encountered depending on the enolates and acceptors employed. Reexamination of this strategy was made possible by the development of techniques for kinetic enolate formation. This discussion is divided into three enolate classes (a) aldehyde and ketone enolates, azaenolates or equivalents, (b) ester and amide enolates, dithioenolates and dienolates and (c) a,0-carboxylic dianions and a-nitrile anions, in order to emphasize the differential reactivity of various enolates with various acceptors."7 The a-nitrile anions are included because of their equivalence to the hypothetical a-carboxylic acid anion. 

Deprotonation of alkylnitriles with LDA or lithium hexamethyldisilazide (LHMDS" ) and treatment of the resultant ambident a-nitrile anions with 1° and 2°-alkyl halides affords C-alkylated products in good yield. However, the a-anions of highly substituted nitriles may undergo N-alkylation to give amides on aqueous workup. 

The sequential nucleophile/electrophile addition can also be applied to the dearomatization of naphthalene and derivatives. Treatment of [Cr(CO)3(l,4-dimethoxynaphthalene)] with 2-methyl-2-litihiodithiane affords a single regio-isomeric dihydronaphthalene (Scheme 24) [35, 40]. In the second example in Scheme 26, an a-nitrile anion is used. HMPA is essential in this case to favor alkylation of the metal as opposed to anion dissociation [40]. 

The Strecker reaction can be considered to be a special form of Mannich reaction where the nucleophile is a nitrile anion. ° Thus, imine 99 is transformed to 100 which, upon hydrolysis, affords amino acid 101. 

The most general methods for the syntheses of 1,2-difunctional molecules are based on the oxidation of carbon-carbon multiple bonds (p. 117) and the opening of oxiranes by hetero atoms (p. 123fl.). There exist, however, also a few useful reactions in which an a - and a d -synthon or two r -synthons are combined. The classical polar reaction is the addition of cyanide anion to carbonyl groups, which leads to a-hydroxynitriles (cyanohydrins). It is used, for example, in Strecker s synthesis of amino acids and in the homologization of monosaccharides. The ff-hydroxy group of a nitrile can be easily substituted by various nucleophiles, the nitrile can be solvolyzed or reduced. Therefore a large variety of terminal difunctional molecules with one additional carbon atom can be made. Equally versatile are a-methylsulfinyl ketones (H.G. Hauthal, 1971 T. Durst, 1979 O. DeLucchi, 1991), which are available from acid chlorides or esters and the dimsyl anion. Carbanions of these compounds can also be used for the synthesis of 1,4-dicarbonyl compounds (p. 65f.). 

Unsubstituted 3-alkyl- or 3-aryl-isoxazoles undergo ring cleavage reactions under more vigorous conditions. In these substrates the deprotonation of the H-5 proton is concurrent with fission of the N—O and C(3)—-C(4) bonds, giving a nitrile and an ethynolate anion. The latter is usually hydrolyzed on work-up to a carboxylic acid, but can be trapped at low temperature. As shown by Scheme 33, such reactions could provide useful syntheses of ketenes and /3-lactones (79LA219). 

Like a carbonyl group, a nitrile group is strongly polarized and has an electrophilic carbon atom. Nitriles therefore react with nucleophiles to yield 5p2-hybridized imine anions in a reaction analogous to the formation of an sp3-hybridized alkoxide ion by nucleophilic addition to a carbonyl group. 

Reduction Conversion of Nitriles into Amines Reduction of a nitrile with LiAIH4 gives a primary amine, RNH . The reaction occurs by nucleophilic addition of hydride ion to the polar C=N bond, yielding an imine anion, which still contains a C=N bond and therefore undergoes a second nucleophilic addition of hydride to give a dianion. Both monoanion and dianion intermediates are undoubtedly stabilized by Lewis acid-base complexafion to an aluminum species, facilitating the second addition that would otherwise be difficult Protonation of the dianion by addition of water in a subsequent step gives the amine. 

Reaction of Nitriles with Organometallic Reagents Grignard reagents add to a nitrile to give an intermediate imine anion that is hydrolyzed by addition of water to yield a ketone. 

This procedure, which involves the addition of an anion derived from a nitrile to an unactivated acetylenic bond under rather mild conditions, is a convenient general method for the synthesis of a-vinyl-nitriles (see Table I). The reaction proceeds smoothly in either dimethyl sulfoxide or hexamethylphosphoric triamide (see p. 103 for warning) as solvent with a tetraalkylam monium salt as catalyst. The products thus prepared are obtained in yields higher2 than those obtained under conventional conditions, which generally require higher temperatures and elevated pressures.3-4... 

There is no room for an activating group on (15) but nitrile (18) gives a suitable anion with NH2 as base. 

Since alkyllithium compounds and their carbanions have an isoelectronic structure with alkoxides, their reaction behavior with carbenes is expected to be similar to that of alkoxides, showing enhanced reactivity in both C-H insertion and hydride abstraction.35 In this reaction, the hydride abstraction cannot be followed by recombination and, therefore, can be differentiated from the insertion. Indeed, the reaction of alkyllithium compounds 70 or nitrile anions (see Section IV.B) with ethyl(phenylthio)carbenoid, which is generated by the reaction of 1-chloropropyl sulfide 69 with BuLi, takes place at the -position of 70 more or less in a similar manner giving both insertion product 71 and hydride abstraction products 72 and 73, respectively. This again supports a general rule C-H bonds at the vicinal position of a negatively charged atom are activated toward carbene insertion reactions (Scheme 22). 

Treatment of a mixture of nitrile anion 74 and 1-chloroalkyl phenyl sulfides... 

An explanatory mechanism for the formation of vinyl sulfides is shown in Scheme 24. In route a, (phenylthio)carbene 77 generated from chlorosulfide 75 reacts with the nitrile anion to form (phenylthio)carbanion 79, which then undergoes elimination of cyanide ion to produce vinyl sulfide 76. In route b, 75 reacts first with the nitrile anion 74 to produce P-(phenylthio)nitrile 78 followed by base-catalyzed P-elimination. However, route b is unlikely because 79 cannot be generated from 68 due to a larger pKa value of its ot proton than that of the nitrile. In fact, the reaction of chlorosulfide 75a with lithionitrile 80 gave a different product 81 in 63% yield. 

Strecker reactions provide one of the most efficient methods for the synthesis of a-amino nitriles, which are useful intermediates in the synthesis of amino acids and nitrogen-containing heterocycles. Although classical Strecker reactions have some limitations, use of trimethylsilyl cyanide (TMSCN) as a cyano anion source provides promising and safer routes to these compounds.133-351 Consequently, we focused our attention on tributyltin cyanide (Bu3SnCN), because Bu3SnCN is stable in water and is also a potential cyano anion source. Indeed, the Strecker-type reactions of aldehydes, amines, and Bu3SnCN proceeded smoothly in water (Eq. 9).1361 It should be noted that no surfactants are required in this reaction. Furthermore, Complete recovery of the toxic tin compounds is also possible in the form of bis(tributyltin) oxide after the reaction is over. Since conversion of bis(tributyltin) oxide to tributyltin cyanide is known in the literature, this procedure provides a solution to the problem associated with toxicity of tin compounds. 

Here again, the presence of a nitrile group at C-5 allow for a great versatility generation of an anion followed by its trapping with electrophiles allows for the introduction of an additional substituent in this position as exemplified by the diastereoselective alkylation of 331 (Scheme 90) <2005JOC4474>. 

Hydrocyanation of butadiene is more complicated than that of ethene it requires two hydrocyanation steps and several isomers can be observed. The isomers obtained in the first step of the HCN addition to butadiene are shown in Figure 11.3. The addition first leads to compounds 1 and 2, in a 1 2 ratio, but they equilibrate to a favourable 1 9 ratio via the retro-reaction. The retro reaction involves a C-C bond breaking reaction, which is rare, but in this case the intermediate is a Tt-allyl species and a stable, anionic cyanide group. Electron-rich nickel species (Ni-dippe) can cleave aromatic nitrile C-C bonds... 

Alkene polymers such as poly(methyl methacrylate) and polyacrylonitrile are easily formed via anionic polymerization because the intermediate anions are resonance stabilized by the additional functional group, the ester or the nitrile. The process is initiated by a suitable anionic species, a nucleophile that can add to the monomer through conjugate addition in Michael fashion. The intermediate resonance-stabilized addition anion can then act as a nucleophile in further conjugate addition processes, eventually giving a polymer. The process will terminate by proton abstraction, probably from solvent. 

Aliphatic alcohols are not reducible under electrochemical conditions. Conversion to a suitable anionic leaving group however does allow carbon-oxygen bond cleavage. Thus, methanesulphonates are reduced at a lead electrode under constent current conditions and this affords an overall tw o step process for the conversion of alcohols to alkanes [9].Deoxygenation of alcohols by this route has been applied successMly in the presence of other functional groups which are difficult to reduce such as alkene, epoxide, ester and nitrile. Cyclopropanes are formed in 50-97 %... 

The presence of the propionamide fragment in the stmcture of the anti-inflammatory agent broperamole (125-1) is reminiscent of the heterocycle-based NSAID propionic acids. The activity of this agent may trace back to the acid that would result on hydrolysis of the amide. Tetrazoles are virtually always prepared by reaction of a nitrile with hydrazoic acid or, more commonly, sodium azide in the presence of acid in a reaction very analogous to a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition. A more recent (and safer) version of the reaction noted later (see losartan, 77-4) uses tributyltin azide. In the case at hand, reaction of the anion of mefa-bromobenzonitrile (125-1) with sodium azide and an acid affords the tetrazole (125-2). Condensation of the anion from that intermediate with ethyl acrylate leads to the product from Michael addition saponiflcation gives the corresponding carboxylic acid (125-3). This is then converted to the acid chloride reaction with piperidine affords broperamole (125-4) [136]. 

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