Acrylates as dienophiles

The first report of an asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction with chiral Lewis acids (252) was made by Russian chemists in 1976 (253). Koga was probably the first to report a meaningful enantioselective Diels-Alder reaction (Scheme 105) in which the cyclopentadiene-methacro-lein exo adduct was obtained in 72% ee with the aid of 15 mol % of a menthol-modified aluminum chloride (254). The ee is highly dependent on the structures of the substrates, and asymmetric induction has not been observed with methyl acrylate as dienophile. Disproportionation... 

Chiral Ti complex, derived from hydrobenzoin dilithium salt and TiCl4, can be used for the asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction of several dienes with fumarate [53] (Eq. 8A.30). However, attempted use of acrylate as dienophile resulted in low enantioselectivity. 

Two main problems were associated with the use of optically pure 3-p-tolyl-sulfinyl acrylates as dienophiles. The first was due to the high number of reaction steps and consequently low overall yields involved in their preparation, and the second to the fact that these dienophiles were insufficiently reactive with a... 

Enamines have been observed to act both as dienophiles (46-48) and dienes (47,49) (dienamines in this case) in one-step, Diels-Alder type of 1,4 cycloadditions with acrylate esters and their vinylogs. This is illustrated by the reaction between l-(N-pyrrolidino)cyclohexene (34) and methyl t/-a i-2,4-pentadienoate (35), where the enamine acts as the dienophile to give the adduct 36 (47). In a competitive type of reaction, however, the... 

It has been established that alkoxy alkenylcarbene complexes participate as dienophiles in Diels-Alder reactions not only with higher rates but also with better regio- and stereoselectivities than the corresponding esters [95]. This is clearly illustrated in Scheme 51 for the reactions of an unsubstituted vinyl complex with isoprene. This complex reacts to completion at 25 °C in 3 h whereas the cycloaddition reaction of methyl acrylate with isoprene requires 7 months at the same temperature. The rate enhancement observed for this complex is comparable to that for the corresponding aluminium chloride-catalysed reactions of methyl acrylate and isoprene (Scheme 51). 

A similar study was done with methyl acrylate as the dienophile.28 The uncatalyzed and catalyzed TSs are shown in Figure 6.7. As with propenal, the catalyzed reaction is quite asynchronous with C(2)-C(3) bonding running ahead of C(l)-C(6) bonding. In this system, there is a shift from favoring the exo-s-cis TS in the thermal reaction to the endo-s-trans TS in the catalyzed reaction. A large component in this difference is the relative stability of the free and complexed dienophile. The free dienophile favors the s-cis conformation, whereas the BF3 complex favors the s-trans conformation. 

The first report on the use of 2-sulfinyl acrylates as optically pure dienophi-les was due to Koizumi et al. [45], who synthesized (-i-)-ethyl 2-p-tolylsulfinyl acrylate (32a) and studied its behavior as a dienophile. It reacted with cyclopentadiene in 6 h at room temperature yielding a mixture of the four possible adducts (Scheme 16). Significant 7r-facial selectivity (favoring endo(c) and exo(c) adducts) but moderate endo/exo selectivity were obtained. Milder conditions were required in the presence of ZnCl2 (3 h at 0°C), which inverted and substantially increased the 7r-facial selectivity (it became almost complete, favoring endo t) and exo(t) adducts), but had only a small effect on the endo selectivity. (Scheme 16). The use of Znl2 instead of ZnCl2 increases the reactivity (1 h at -20°C) and improves the endo/exo ratio (de = 74%), as was recently reported for dienophile 32b [46]. 

In contrast to the sulfinyl acrylates, the behavior of the enantiomerically pure sulfinyl enones as dienophiles has been very little studied. The first report in this field was due to Maignan et al. [53], who described the synthesis of several sulfinyl enones and the reaction of 3-p-tolylsulfinyl butenone 47 with cyclopenta-diene. The reaction required 12 h at room temperature to reach completion, and a 60 40 mixture of the two exo adducts was obtained (Scheme 24). This result suggested that the endo-orientating character of the carbonyl group is much higher than that of the sulfinyl one, thus resulting in only exo-adducts (endo with respect to the carbonyl group). By contrast, the 7r-facial selectivity is very low. 

Alkene- and alkyne-substituted Fischer carbenes participate as dienophiles in Diels-Alder reactions. The conditions are usually mild and the reaction proceeds smoothly at room temperature. Similar isomeric ratio and rate acceleration is observed to that of Lewis acid-promoted Diels-Alder reactions between methyl acrylates and dienes when compared to the uncatalyzed reactions. The reactions are endo-selective. Asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions are... 

Chiral Lewis Acid. These chiral titanium reagents are widely used as chiral Lewis acid catalysts. The Diels-Alder reaction of methyl acrylate and cyclopentadiene affords the endo adduct in moderate enantioselectivity when a stoichiometric amount of the chiral titanium reagent (5) is employed (eq 6). Use of 3-(2-alkenoyl)-l,3-oxazolidin-2-ones as dienophiles greatly improves the optical purity of the cycloadduct when the 2-phenyl-2-methyl-1,3-dioxolane derivative (6) is used as a chiral ligand. Most importantly, the reaction proceeds with the same high enantioselectivity for the combination of various dienophiles and dienes even when 5-10 mol % of the chiral titanium reagent is employed in the presence of molecular sieves 4A (eqs 7 and 8). ... 

The possibility that metallocenes might function as Lewis acids in Diels-Alder reactions was probed with ferrocenium hexafluorophosphate [184]. The answer is affirmative the cycloadditions studied include methacrolein, crotonaldehyde, and methyl vinyl ketone as dienophiles and butadienes and cyclopentadienes as diene components. Yields are in the range 60-80 % with reaction times of 3-36 h at 0 to 20 °C. Fair to good yields were also obtained in reactions of isoprene and cyclopentadiene with acrolein and methyl vinyl ketone in the presence of 1 % [Pd(PPh3)2(MeCN)2](BF4)2 (in CH2CI2, room temperature). Methyl acrylate resulted in low yields, and chiral modification with (5)-BINAP is reported to give the cycloadducts with modest enantioselectivity [164]. 

Assembly of Diels-Mder reaction components using a Ugi reaction Furfural and related compounds (293) can serve as diene building blocks in intramolecular and intermolecular cycloadditions, as they can be attached to resin-bound amines by reductive amination [306]. Particularly versatile is the use of furfural derivatives in 4-component Ugi reactions, where the diene and the dienophile component can be present. However, in the reaction set-up the electronic characteristics of the building blocks such as HOMO/LUMO energy or electron demand have to be considered to receive high yields. In the study presented by Schreiber et al., an acrylic acid served as dienophile (Scheme 64) [307]. 

Most of the classical dienes are hydrocarbons, like cyclopentadiene. butadiene, anthracene, 9,10-dimethylanthracene, isoprene, 2,3-dimethylbutadiene. For dienes of this kind it is generally true that electrophilic dienophiles are the most reactive, and actually acrylic derivatives, maleic anhydride, p-benzo-quinone and similar compounds have found a large use as dienophiles both for preparative purposes and for kinetic studies. The latter demonstrated quantitatively the importance of electronegative groups on the dienophiles, and conversely of electron-releasing substituents on the diene, in order to accelerate such type of Diels-Alder reaction. It was also realised later that Diels-Alder additions with inverse electron demand , that is between electrophilic dienes and nucleophilic dienophiles, do occur . ... 

Non-catalyzed Diels-Alder reactions of chiral dienes with the achiral dienophiles compiled below have been widely studied. As dienophiles especially quinones (1), maleic anhydride (2), nitro-substituted alkenes (5) and acrylates (4) have been examined. 

The use of 3-(2-pyridylsulfinyl)acrylates as enantiomerically pure dienophiles of enhanced reactivity in Diels-Alder reactions with dienes of low reactivity such as furan suffer from the following disadvantages ... 

Theodorakis et al. also reported a model study for the synthesis of 4-oxatricy-clo[4.3.1.0]decan-2-one core by employing acrylate as the dienophile resulting in an increase in the selectivity and yield of the product 99 [76]. They also achieved a total synthesis of seco-lateriflorone, desoxymorellin and forbesione through a tandem Claisen rearrangement/Diels-Alder reaction as a key step [77]. 

Donor substituents on the vinyl group further enhance reactivity towards electrophilic dienophiles. Equations 8.6 and 8.7 illustrate the use of such functionalized vinylpyrroles in indole synthesis[2,3]. In both of these examples, the use of acetyleneic dienophiles leads to fully aromatic products. Evidently this must occur as the result of oxidation by atmospheric oxygen. With vinylpyrrole 8.6A, adducts were also isolated from dienophiles such as methyl acrylate, dimethyl maleate, dimethyl fumarate, acrolein, acrylonitrile, maleic anhydride, W-methylmaleimide and naphthoquinone. These tetrahydroindole adducts could be aromatized with DDQ, although the overall yields were modest[3]. 

The ability of 1,2 (or l,6)-dihydropyridines to undergo a Diels-Alder reaction with dienophiles such as methyl vinyl ketone, methyl acrylate, and acrylonitrile has been utilized in the synthesis of polyfunctional isoquinuclidine as a key intermediate in the synthesis of aspidosperma- and iboga-type alkaloids (66JA3099). 

The Diels-Alder reaction of a diene with a substituted olefinic dienophile, e.g. 2, 4, 8, or 12, can go through two geometrically different transition states. With a diene that bears a substituent as a stereochemical marker (any substituent other than hydrogen deuterium will suffice ) at C-1 (e.g. 11a) or substituents at C-1 and C-4 (e.g. 5, 6, 7), the two different transition states lead to diastereomeric products, which differ in the relative configuration at the stereogenic centers connected by the newly formed cr-bonds. The respective transition state as well as the resulting product is termed with the prefix endo or exo. For example, when cyclopentadiene 5 is treated with acrylic acid 15, the cw fo-product 16 and the exo-product 17 can be formed. Formation of the cw fo-product 16 is kinetically favored by secondary orbital interactions (endo rule or Alder rule) Under kinetically controlled conditions it is the major product, and the thermodynamically more stable cxo-product 17 is formed in minor amounts only. 

A similar study performed by Welton and co-workers studied the rate and selec-tivities of the Diels-Alder reaction between cyclopentadiene and methyl acrylate in a number of neutral ionic liquids [44]. It was found that endo. exo ratios decreased slightly as the reaction proceeded, and were dependent on reagent concentration and ionic liquid type. Subsequently, they went on to demonstrate that the ionic liquids controlled the endo. exo ratios through a hydrogen bond (Lewis acid) interaction with the electron-withdrawing group of the dienophile. 

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