Acyl derivatives hydrogenolysis

The synthesis of a pyrrole segment common to netropsin and distamycin is shown in Scheme 2ji°l Friedel-Crafts acylation of 1-methylpyrrole (1) followed by nitration at C4 provides 3 in 54% yield. After a haloform reaction, hydrogenolysis, N-protection with B0C2O, and saponification, the pyrrolecarboxylic derivative acid 7 was obtained in 30% overall yield from 3. This monomer is readily chain-extended to the pyrrole-imidazole derivative 9 (Scheme 3)J10 Furthermore, solid-phase synthesis with this and related pyrrole-containing building blocks leads to polyamides that have recently been used in the recognition of a 16 base-pair sequence in the minor groove of DNA.1" ... 

Acylation of the amine 35, followed by Odeacetalation, gave 36, which was converted into its dibutyltin derivative.50 This allowed selective acetylation, lactoylation, methylation, and benzylation on 0-6, to give the protected JV-acetylmannosamines, 37,38,39, and 40, respectively. Methylation of 40 gave the 4-methyl ether 41. Catalytic hydrogenolysis led to the free sugars, 16 to 19 (see Scheme 11). 

The following discussion deals not only with this reaction, but related reactions in which a transition metal complex achieves the addition of carbon monoxide to an alkene or alkyne to yield carboxylic acids and their derivatives. These reactions take place either by the insertion of an alkene (or alkyne) into a metal-hydride bond (equation 1) or into a metal-carboxylate bond (equation 2) as the initial key step. Subsequent steps include carbonyl insertion reactions, metal-acyl hydrogenolysis or solvolysis and metal-carbon bond protonolysis. 

Reductive cleavage of the carbon-silicon bond of acyl silanes, including a-alkoxy and t/./i-dialkoxy derivatives, to give aldehydes may be accomplished by palladium-catalysed hydrogenolysis at ambient temperature and pressure212. 

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