Acetylene lithium reaction with

Trichloromethyl lithium (generated from BrCCl3 and CH3Li at —100 °C) adds to dialkyl acetylenes and to monoalkyl acetylenes23, thus monoalkyl cyclopropenones became accessible which could not be obtained from terminal acetylenes by reaction with the above carbene sources. The 3,3-dihaIogeno-A1,2-cycIopropenes formed as primary products in the dihalocarbene reactions are usually not isolated, but are hydrolyzed directly to cyclopropenones. 

Cuprate, dibutyl-, lithium, reaction with acetylene, 66, 62 Cuprates, higher order, 66, 57... 

The alkali metals form only ionic carbides, mostly simple ionic salts of acetylene, M2C2, which liberate acetylene on reaction with moisture. There has been much recent interest in permetalated and hypermetalated hydrocarbon species, or methanides . Most studied in this respect has been lithium, presumably because of its volatility and amenability to calculation. Mass spectrometric and calculational evidence has been presented for CLie, CLis, and C2Li4, but real samples of CLi4, C3Li4, and C5Li4 are preparable. All are pyrophoric powders. The heavier metals form another class of carbide , the graphite intercalation compounds, but as the electron has not been totally freed from the metal, these were considered in the previous section. 

In the first method a secondary acetylenic bromide is warmed in THF with an equivalent amount of copper(I) cyanide. We found that a small amount of anhydrous lithium bromide is necessary to effect solubilization of the copper cyanide. Primary acetylenic bromides, RCECCH Br, under these conditions afford mainly the acetylenic nitriles, RCsCCHjCsN (see Chapter VIII). The aqueous procedure for the allenic nitriles is more attractive, in our opinion, because only a catalytic amount of copper cyanide is required the reaction of the acetylenic bromide with the KClV.CuCN complex is faster than the reaction with KCN. Excellent yields of allenic nitriles can be obtained if the potassium cyanide is added at a moderate rate during the reaction. Excess of KCN has to be avoided, as it causes resinifi-cation of the allenic nitrile. In the case of propargyl bromide 1,1-substitution may also occur, but the propargyl cyanide immediately isomerizes under the influence of the potassium cyanide. 

Nucleophilic addition to acetylenic sulfoxides provides a,/ -ethylenic sulfoxides. Treatment of 181 with monoalkyl-copper afforded nearly quantitatively /J-alkylated a, / -ethylenic sulfoxides 182 through cis-addition to the triple bond. The reaction with lithium dimethylcuprate also afforded a similar adduct however, the reaction with lithium di-n-butylcuprate was found to give a small amount of ethyl n-butyl sulfoxide 183 besides the... 

Potassium or lithium derivatives of ethyl acetate, dimethyl acetamide, acetonitrile, acetophenone, pinacolone and (trimethylsilyl)acetylene are known to undergo conjugate addition to 3-(t-butyldimethylsiloxy)-1 -cyclohexenyl t-butyl sulfone 328. The resulting a-sulfonyl carbanions 329 can be trapped stereospecifically by electrophiles such as water and methyl iodide417. When the nucleophile was an sp3-hybridized primary anion (Nu = CH2Y), the resulting product was mainly 330, while in the reaction with (trimethylsilyl)acetylide anion the main product was 331. 

We see from these examples that many of the carbon nucleophiles we encountered in Chapter 10 are also nucleophiles toward aldehydes and ketones (cf. Reactions 10-104-10-108 and 10-110). As we saw in Chapter 10, the initial products in many of these cases can be converted by relatively simple procedures (hydrolysis, reduction, decarboxylation, etc.) to various other products. In the reaction with terminal acetylenes, sodium acetylides are the most common reagents (when they are used, the reaction is often called the Nef reaction), but lithium, magnesium, and other metallic acetylides have also been used. A particularly convenient reagent is lithium acetylide-ethylenediamine complex, a stable, free-flowing powder that is commercially available. Alternatively, the substrate may be treated with the alkyne itself in the presence of a base, so that the acetylide is generated in situ. This procedure is called the Favorskii reaction, not to be confused with the Favorskii rearrangement (18-7). ... 

Modifying the reaction medium to involve liquid ammonia with metallic lithium, f-butyl alcohol, and white phosphorus, to which is added the haloalkane, is reported to provide the primary alkylphos-phine derived from the haloalkane.19 Similar results are reported for the reaction of red phosphorus with sodium acetylides20 and by treatment of red phosphorus with sodium metal in an organic medium followed by the addition of two equivalents of f-butyl alcohol and the haloalkane.21 The latter approach is noteworthy in that moderate yields (45%) are obtained for primary phosphines derived from secondary haloalkanes (Figure 2.6). Mixtures of tertiary phosphines bearing one or two acetylenic linkages are produced in low yield ( 15%) by the reaction of lithium acetylides with white phosphorus in liquid ammonia followed by addition of a haloalkane.22... 

Sulfonium, cyclopropyldiphenyl tetrafluoroborate, 54, 28 Sulfonium salts, acetylenic, furans from, 53, 3 Sulfonium ylides, 54, 32 Sulfur, reaction with organo-lithium compounds, 50, 105 Sulfuryl chloride, with 1,1-cyclobutanedicarboxylic acid to give 3-chloro-l,1-cyclobutanedicarboxylic acid, 51, 73... 

Treatment of the acetylenic ketones 186 with lithium dialkylcuprates and trapping the resultant enolates with acetic anhydride produced the enyne-allene 187 (Scheme 20.39) [72], Regeneration of the oxyanion-substituted enyne-allene system using methyllithium at -20 °C led to the formation of either the indanones 188 or the ben-zofluorenones 189 through a Schmittel cyclization reaction. 

By cobalt-lithium exchange, the group of Sekiguchi and coworkers generated several dilithium salts of variously substituted cyclobutadiene dianions . By the reaction of the functionalized acetylenes (e.g. compound 137) with CpCo(CO)2 (136), the corresponding cobalt sandwich complexes, related to compound 138, were obtained (Scheme 50). These can be interconverted into the dilithium salts of the accordant cyclobutadiene dianions (e.g. dilithium compound 139) by reaction with metallic lithium in THF. Bicyclic as well as tricyclic (e.g. dilithium compound 141, starting from cobalt complex 140) silyl substituted systems were generated (Scheme 51) . ... 

Acetylene gas must be removed from above the solution to prevent reaction with the concentrated butyllithium solution entering the flask. Such a reaction in the presence of excess butyllithium will result in the formation of dilithium acetylide on the needle tip. The formation of even small amounts of dilithium acetylide must be avoided lithium acetylide readily... 

The general scheme for preparation in the laboratory has a number of alternatives, the choice of a particular method being determined by the availability of the starting acetylene, r CsCH, the desired scale of the preparation (e.g. a few millimoles, 100 mmolar, 1 molar or more) and a number of other factors. The most versatile method, suitable for working on scales varying from a few mmoles to -0.5 mole, is the reaction of a lithium alkynylide with a carbonyl compound in THF(-hexane) ... 

In contrasi to many acetylenes RCsCH, chloroacetylene can be successfully coupled with ketones in liquid ammonia via the lithium compound [80,85], The excellent yield in the reaction with acetone indicates that practically no formation of enolate occurs. Similar good results have been obtained with lithiated ethynyl thioethers, (LiCsCSR), lithiated enyne thioethers, (LiCsCCH=CHSR), lithiated 1,3-diynes (RC=CC=CLi), and lithiated aiylacetylenes (LiCsCAryl)[2], A possible explanation for the small extent of enolization of the ketone is that all these acetylides are less basic due to some stabilization of the anion. 

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