Acetone compounds, carbonyl ylides

Transition-metal mediated carbene transfer from 205 to benzaldehyde generates carbonyl ylides 211 which are transformed into oxiranes 216 by 1,3-cyclization, into tetrahydrofurans 212, 213 or dihydrofurans 214 by [3 + 2] cycloaddition with electron-deficient alkenes or aUtynes, and 1,3-dioxolanes 215 by [3 + 2] cycloaddition with excess carbonyl compound (equation 67). Related carbonyl ylide reactions have been performed with crotonaldehyde, acetone and cyclohexanone (equation 68). However, the ylide generated from cyclohexanone could not be trapped with dimethyl fumarate. Rather, the enol ether 217, probably formed by 1,4-proton shift in the ylide intermediate, was isolated in low yield . In this respect, the carbene transfer reaction with 205 is not different from that with ethyl diazoacetate, whereas a close analogy to diazomalonates is observed for the other carbonyl ylide reactions. 

The stereoisomeric mixture of -hydroxyalkyl selenides resulting from the reaction of the a-selenoalkyllithium and the carbonyl compound has been often cleanly and easily separated into its constituents by liquid chromatography on silica gel (Schemes 124,133,134, and 170 172).200.206.222,226,229,258 59 jj,jg has, therefore, allowed the synthesis of each of the two stereoisomers of various di- and tri-substituted alkenes (Schemes 124,170 and 171 Scheme 172, a) and epoxides (Scheme 124 Scheme 172, b), which are otherwise obtained as intractable mixtures of stereoisomers through the conventional phosphorus or sulfur ylide methods. Last but not least, 2-lithio-2-methylselenopropane can be used as the precursor of various compounds bearing gem dimethyl substituted carbons, such as squalene, oxido-squalene, lanosterol and cholesterol. Use of commercially available perdeuterated or Ci or — 2 acetone allows the straightforward synthesis of the corresponding labelled compounds... 

Among other carbonyl compounds successfully used in olefin synthesis are (40), (41), the optically active dione (42), the pyrroles (43), and the xanthone (44). In the last case the aldehyde was added rapidly to a large excess of the ylide, followed immediately by acetone to remove the excess reagent. 

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