Addition to Unsaturated Acceptors

In addition to enoiate ions, other kinds of carbon nucleophiles add to ,/ -unsaturated acceptors in the Michael reaction, greatly extending the usefulness and versatility of the process. Among the most important such nucleophiles are enamines. Recall from Section 19.9 that enamines are readily prepared by reaction between a ketone and a secondary amine ... 

Conjugate addition of a nucleophile to an activated olefin is generally referred to as a Michael addition reaction (1). Of particular interest is the addition of delocalized carbanions to unsaturated acceptors, a process resulting in the construction of a carbon-carbon bond, often stereoselectively (2). However, the addition of metal enolates to unsaturated acceptors is not completely general and two major modifications have been developed wherein covalently bound enolate equivalents are added to unsaturated acceptors. 

Asymmetric organocatalytic addition reactions of maleimides A promising approach towards the synthesis of chiral succinimide derivatives 13C./ 328. Asymmetric organocatalytic conjugate addition of arenes and hetarenes to unsaturated acceptors 12RCA6117. 

Enamines react with acceptor-substituted alkenes (Michael acceptors) in a conjugate addition reaction for example with o ,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds or nitriles such as acrylonitrile 8. With respect to the acceptor-substituted alkene the reaction is similar to a Michael addition ... 

A Michael reaction involves the conjugate addition of a stable enolate ion donor to an o,/3-unsaturated carbonyl acceptor, yielding a 1,5-dicarbonyl product. Usually, the stable enolate ion is derived from a /3-diketone, jS-keto ester, malonic ester, or similar compound. The C—C bond made in the conjugate addition step is the one between the a carbon of the acidic donor and the (3 carbon of the unsaturated acceptor. 

Enamines behave in much the same way as enolate ions and enter into many of the same kinds of reactions. In the Stork reaction, for example, an enamine adds to an aqQ-unsaturated carbonyl acceptor in a Michael-like process. The initial product is then hydrolyzed by aqueous acid (Section 19.8) to yield a 1,5-dicarbonyi compound. The overall reaction is thus a three-step sequence of (11 enamine formation from a ketone, (2) Michael addition to an a,j3-unsaturated carbonyl compound, and (3) enamine hydrolysis back to a ketone. 

The conjugate addition of a carbon nucleophile to an a./3-unsiituratcd acceptor is known as the Michael reaction. The best Michael reactions take place between unusually acidic donors (/3-keto esters or /3-diketones) and unhindered n,/3-unsaturated acceptors. Knamines, prepared by reaction of a ketone with a disu Instituted amine, are also good Michael donors. 

The stereoselective 1,4-addition of lithium diorganocuprates (R2CuLi) to unsaturated carbonyl acceptors is a valuable synthetic tool for creating a new C—C bond.181 As early as in 1972, House and Umen noted that the reactivity of diorganocuprates directly correlates with the reduction potentials of a series of a,/ -unsaturated carbonyl compounds.182 Moreover, the ESR detection of 9-fluorenone anion radical in the reaction with Me2CuLi, coupled with the observation of pinacols as byproducts in equation (40) provides the experimental evidence for an electron-transfer mechanism of the reaction between carbonyl acceptors and organocuprates.183... 

Analogously, the trienynoate 92 reacted in a 1,10-addition to give the 3,5,7,8-tetra-enoate 93 and the even higher unsaturated allene 95 was obtained from the Michael acceptor 94 containing four double bonds between the triple bond and the acceptor substituent (Scheme 2.33). In the latter case, however, the yield was only 26% this is presumably due to the reduced thermal stability of the starting material and/or the addition product (the 1,12-adduct 95 was the only isolable reaction product, apart from polymeric compounds) [57]. 

Silylcuprates have been reported to undergo reactions with a number of miscellaneous Michael acceptors [65]. Conjugate addition to 3-carbomethoxy acyl pyri-dinium salts [65a] affords 4-silyl-l,4-dihydropyridines. Oxidation with p-chlorand generates a 4-acyl pyridinium salt that gives the 4-silylnicotinate upon quenching with water, and methyl 4-silyl-2-substituted dihydronicotinates upon quenching with nucleophiles (nucleophilic addition at the 6-position). The stabilized anion formed by conjugate addition to an a, j8-unsaturated sulfone could be trapped intramolecularly by an alkyl chloride [65b]. 

During the coverage period of this chapter, reviews have appeared on the following topics reactions of electrophiles with polyfluorinated alkenes, the mechanisms of intramolecular hydroacylation and hydrosilylation, Prins reaction (reviewed and redefined), synthesis of esters of /3-amino acids by Michael addition of amines and metal amides to esters of a,/3-unsaturated carboxylic acids," the 1,4-addition of benzotriazole-stabilized carbanions to Michael acceptors, control of asymmetry in Michael additions via the use of nucleophiles bearing chiral centres, a-unsaturated systems with the chirality at the y-position, and the presence of chiral ligands or other chiral mediators, syntheses of carbo- and hetero-cyclic compounds via Michael addition of enolates and activated phenols, respectively, to o ,jS-unsaturated nitriles, and transition metal catalysis of the Michael addition of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds. ... 

Stetter expanded Umpolung reactivity to include the addition of acyl anion equivalents to a,P-unsaturated acceptors to afford 1,4-dicarbonyls Eq. 5a [57-60]. Utilizing cyanide or thiazolylidene carbenes as catalysts, Stetter showed that a variety of aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes act as competent nucleophilic coupling partners with a wide range of a,p-unsaturated ketones, esters, and nitriles [61]. The ability to bring two different electrophilic partners... 

Ishikawa and coworkers have studied the unique reactivity of strained cyclic disilanes (Equation 9.11) [35]. Transition metals, especially those of Group 10, readily insert into the Si—Si bond of disilacyclobutene 118 and can catalyze the addition of that bond across a variety of unsaturated acceptors. In the case of Ni(0)-catalyzed reactions of 118 with trimethylsilyl alkynes, insertion was found to occur both in a 1,2-and in a 1,1-fashion. The latter of these pathways implies a 1,2-silyl-migration, presumably occurring at the metal center. A nickel vinylidene intermediate was therefore proposed, though efforts to prove its existence were inconclusive. Similar vinylidene intermediates have been proposed by Ishikawa and coworkers to account for migrations observed in related palladium- and platinum-catalyzed reactions [36]. 

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