Alcohols, carbonylation organometallics

The best disconnection of alcohols to organometallic and carbonyl compound is normally the one that gives the most stable anion. 

The behavior of unsaturated azlactones with organometallic reagents has been studied in detail. Arylmagnesium halides and phenyllithium attack 4-arylidene-5-oxazolones at the carbonyl carbon to give ring-opened amido tertiary alcohols (26) and oxazolines (27) (by ring closure), usually as mixtures [Eq. (17)]. The nature of the... 

Organopalladium intermediates are also involved in the synthesis of ketones and other carbonyl compounds. These reactions involve acylpalladium intermediates, which can be made from acyl halides or by reaction of an organopalladium species with carbon monoxide. A second organic group, usually arising from any organometallic reagent, can then form a ketone. Alternatively, the acylpalladium intermediate may react with nucleophilic solvents such as alcohols to form esters. 

Alcohols from Carbonyl Compounds. Oxidation-Reduction and Organometallic Compounds... 

Reactions where NLE have been discovered include Sharpless asymmetric epoxi-dation of allylic alcohols, enantioselective oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides, Diels-Alder and hetero-Diels-Alder reactions, carbonyl-ene reactions, addition of MesSiCN or organometallics on aldehydes, conjugated additions of organometal-lics on enones, enantioselective hydrogenations, copolymerization, and the Henry reaction. Because of the diversity of the reactions, it is more convenient to classify the examples according to the types of catalyst involved. 

Anionic polymerization can be initiated with tertiary phosphines or amines, with organometallic compounds or with alcoholates. With all of these, initiation occurs by nucleophilic attack on the positive carbonyl carbon atom ... 

Organometallic reagents are better known for their involvement in the alkylations at ring nitrogen atoms in many heterocycles. However, under proper circumstances, they can promote addition to carbonyl groups. Such is the case when 68 is allowed to react with an excess of Me2BuMgLi at 0°C. The secondary alcohol 69 is obtained in fair yield (Equation 28) <20040L1991>. 

Many catalysts do not use metals in their pure reduced metallic forms. Anchored organometallic complexes are often analogs of homogenous catalysts fixed on a solid support. In particular, titanate complexes both in solution and in supported form have been found to be especially active in transesterifications of simple esters.It was proposed that titanates catalyze the transesterification reaction through a Lewis acid mechanism where the reactant ester and metal form a Lewis complex activating the carbonyl groups for a nucleophilic attack by the reactant alcohol. The tetrahedral intermediate that is formed breaks down into the product alcohol and an ester-metal Lewis... 

The formation of chiral alcohols from carbonyl compounds has been fairly widely studied by reactions of aldehydes or ketones with organometallic reagents in the presence of chiral ligands. Mukaiyama et al. 1081 obtained excellent results (up to 94% e.e.) in at least stoichiometric addition of the chiral auxiliary to the carbonyl substrate and the organometallic reagent. 

Isomerization of allylic alcoholsAllylic alcohols can be isomerized to carbonyl compounds by several organometallic reagents at elevated temperatures. The reaction can be conducted at 25-30° overnight with [Rh(CO)2Cll2 under phase-transfer conditions. Cleaner reactions obtain if benzyltriethylammonium chloride is used as catalyst. 

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