Aldehyde cyanation

The concept of CPTC has been applied in a large number of catalytic reactions such as reduction of allyl chlorides with HCOONa, carbonylation of aryl and allyl halides, allylation of aldehydes, cyanation of aryl halides etc.214 For example, Okano et a/.215 reduced l-chloro-2-nonene to afford 1-nonene and... 

Relatively few of the enzymatic methods applicable to the preparation of secondary cyanohydrins have been adapted successfully to the synthesis of optically pure tertiary cyanohydrins [1,3,4]. Similarly, progress in asymmetric hydro-cyanation of ketones with synthetic catalysts lagged far behind advances in aldehyde cyanation. This situation has changed fairly dramatically over the past... 

Peroxomonosulfuric acid oxidi2es cyanide to cyanate, chloride to chlorine, and sulfide to sulfate (60). It readily oxidi2es carboxyflc acids, alcohols, alkenes, ketones, aromatic aldehydes, phenols, and hydroquiaone (61). Peroxomonosulfuric acid hydroly2es rapidly at pH <2 to hydrogen peroxide and sulfuric acid. It is usually made and used ia the form of Caro s acid. 

Ozone can be used to completely oxidize low concentrations of organics in aqueous streams or partially degrade compounds that are refractory or difficult to treat by other methods. Compounds that can be treated with ozone include alkanes, alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, phenols, benzene and its derivatives, and cyanide. Ozone readHy oxidizes cyanide to cyanate, however, further oxidation of the cyanate by ozone proceeds rather slowly and may require other oxidation treatment like alkaline chlorination to complete the degradation process. 

This reaction was also applied to reduce the nitrile groups in the maeromolecules of cellulose ethyl cyanates and poly(vinyl alcohol)51. In this case it has been found that along with aldehyde groups a considerable amount of carboxylic groups is also formed. 

It has been shown52 that under similar conditions reduction of the nitrile groups in cellulose ethyl cyanate and of those in the copolymer of vinylidene cyanide with vinyl acetate, proceed simultaneously in two directions with the formation of aldehyde and amine groups. g+ g ... 

In addition to this, asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cyclization reactions of nitrones with olefins,40 41 catalytic enantioselective cyanation of aldehydes,42 catalytic enantioselective animation,43 and aza-Michael reactions44 have been reported, and high enantioselectivities are observed. 

Sn(OTf)2 can function as a catalyst for aldol reactions, allylations, and cyanations asymmetric versions of these reactions have also been reported. Diastereoselective and enantioselective aldol reactions of aldehydes with silyl enol ethers using Sn(OTf)2 and a chiral amine have been reported (Scheme SO) 338 33 5 A proposed active complex is shown in the scheme. Catalytic asymmetric aldol reactions using Sn(OTf)2, a chiral diamine, and tin(II) oxide have been developed.340 Tin(II) oxide is assumed to prevent achiral reaction pathway by weakening the Lewis acidity of Me3SiOTf, which is formed during the reaction. 

To investigate the feasibility of employing 3-oxidopyridinium betaines as stabilized 1,3-dipoles in an intramolecular dipolar cycloaddition to construct the hetisine alkaloid core (Scheme 1.8, 77 78), a series of model cycloaddition substrates were prepared. In the first (Scheme 1.9a), an ene-nitrile substrate (i.e., 83) was selected as an activated dipolarophile functionality. Nitrile 66 was subjected to reduction with DIBAL-H, affording aldehyde 79 in 79 % yield. This was followed by reductive amination of aldehyde x with furfurylamine (80) to afford the furan amine 81 in 80 % yield. The ene-nitrile was then readily accessed via palladium-catalyzed cyanation of the enol triflate with KCN, 18-crown-6, and Pd(PPh3)4 in refluxing benzene to provide ene-nitrile 82 in 75 % yield. Finally, bromine-mediated aza-Achmatowicz reaction [44] of 82 then delivered oxidopyridinium betaine 83 in 65 % yield. 

Ene-nitrile oxidoisoquinolinium betaine 131 was readily prepared from vinyl triflate aldehyde 79 (Scheme 1.14). Palladium-catalyzed cyanation of vinyl triflate 79 with Zn(CN)2 in DMF at 60 °C produced ene-nitrile aldehyde 129 in 85 % yield [54]. Using the previously developed Staudinger-aza-Wittig reduction sequence, aldehyde 129 was coupled with cyclic ketal azide 121 to afford a 79 % yield of amine 130. The cyclic ketal amine 130 was then treated with 9 1 mixture of CH2CI2/TFA to provide ene-nitrile oxidoisoquinolinium betaine 131 in 93 % yield. 

Complex (J )-140 serves as a chiral Lewis acid and coordinates to the aldehyde at the less hindered /J-face of 141. i e-side cyanation of (J )-141 and the subsequent cleavage of the alkoxide group give the product 142. Because at this stage the catalyst turnover is blocked, the reaction cannot be carried out in a catalytic manner. 

The synthetic utility of the carbonylation of zirconacycles was further enhanced by the development of a pair of selective procedures producing either ketones or alcohols [30] and has been extensively applied to the synthesis of cyclic ketones and alcohols, most extensively by Negishi [22—27,29—33,65,87,131—134], as detailed below in Section I.4.3.3.4. The preparation of unsaturated aldehydes by carbonylation with CO is not very satisfactory. The use of isonitriles in place of CO, however, has provided a useful alternative [135], and this has been applied to the synthesis of curacin A [125]. Another interesting variation is the cyanation of alkenes [136]. Further developments and a critical comparison with carbonylation using CO will be necessary before the isonitrile reaction can become widely useful. The relevant results are shown in Scheme 1.35. 

Complexation of an amino acid derivative with a transition metal to provide a cyanation catalyst has been the subject of investigation for some years. It has been shown that the complex formed on reaction of titanium(IV) ethoxide with the imine (40) produces a catalyst which adds the elements of HCN to a variety of aldehydes to furnish the ( R)-cyanohydrins with high enantioselectivity[117]. Other imines of this general type provide the enantiomeric cyanohydrins from the same range of substrates11171. 

Another reaction type for which EGA catalysis has been thoroughly explored is the reaction between organo-silicon nucleophiles and acetals or unprotected aldehydes and ketones [31-33]. The reaction types are aldol condensation, allyla-tion, cyanation, and hydride reductions depending on which of the nucleophiles (16) to (20) is used. 

The cyanation reactions with (19) (extremely toxic and requires essentially nonacidic reaction conditions) can also he carried out with unprotected aldehydes in good yields but with higher charge consumption (88-97%, 0.15-0.45 F). For ketones, the products are isolated as trimethylsilyl ethers, whereas for aldehydes the sdyl ethers are hydrolyzed to alcohols [33]. 

Lundgren, S. Wingstrand, E. Penhoat, M. Moberg, C. Dual Lewis acid-Lewis base activation in enantioselective cyanation of aldehydes using acetyl cyanide and cyanoformate as cyanide sources. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005,127, 11592-11593. 

Cyanation of aldehydes and ketones is an important chemical process for C C bond formation." " Trimethylsilyl cyanide and/or HCN are commonly used as cyanide sources. The intrinsic toxicity and instability of these reagents are problematic in their applications. Acetyl cyanide and cyanoformates were used as cyanide sources in the enantioselective cyanation of aldehydes catalyzed by a chiral Ti complex and Lewis base (Scheme 5.31)." The Lewis base was necessary for the good yields and selectivities of these reactions. The desired products were obtained in the presence of 10mol% triethyl amine and 5mol% chiral titanium catalyst (Figure 5.14). Various aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes could be used in these reactions. 

Scheme 5.32. Catal3Tic heterobimetallic asymmetric cyanation of aldehydes.

The proposed mechanism is as follows initial cyanation of the acyl silane followed by a [1,2]-Brook rearrangement yields acyl anion equivalent XIV (Scheme 4). Subsequent attack by the acyl anion equivalent XV to the aldehyde leads to... 

Scheme 49 Representative products formed via cyanation of aldehydes...

The double process of cyanation/transcyanation of co-bromoaldehydes and racemic cyanohydrins as a source of HCN is a really interesting process (Scheme 10.25). Thus, using this reaction it is possible to obtain optically active (S)-ketone- and (R)-aldehyde-cyanohydrins in one pot [55], The reaction is carried out in diisopropyl ether using a crude extract of almond containing (R)-oxynitrilase as biocatalyst. The optically active (a-bromocyanohydrins prepared by this method is used as starting materials for the synthesis of valuable compounds such as... 

There is a primary alcohol-to-aldehyde step in the synthesis of (+)-batzelladine A, and it was suggested that the oxidation of the primary alcohol (1) with TRAP/ NMO/PMS/CH Cl proceeds through an iminium-Ru alkoxide complex (2), rearranging as in (3)-(4) to give the aldehyde (5) (Fig. 1.13) [101] (a similar mechanism was proposed for the Ru-catalysed oxidative cyanation of tertiary amines [403] cf. 5.1.3.4, Fig. 5.3). 

Aldehydes or Ketones with Other Functional Groups Aldehydes, Ketones with Other Functional Groups Kepone Chlordecone Aliphatic Flydrocarbons Aliphatic Nitriles and Cyanates Acetonitrile Acrylonitrile Aliphatic Nitriles Aliphatic Nitrosamines Aliphatic Nitrosamines A-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA)... 

Acetonitrile under Aliphatic Nitriles and Cyanates Acryhc Add Propenoic Add under Carboxyhc Acids Acrylonitrile under AUphatic Nitriles and Cyanates Alcohols Aldehydes... 

Other examples of electrophilic toxic chemicals are aldehydes and ketones, especially unsaturated ones, acyl halides and cyanates. 

Reductive cyanation (5, 684 6, 600).1 The original conditions for conversion of ketones into nitriles give low yields when applied to aldehydes. Satisfactory results are obtained, however, if the initial reaction with TosMIC is conducted at 50° in DME before addition of methanol and reflux. Yields of 50-70% are then possible. 

Keywords Cyanation, a-Cyanohydrin, a-Aminonitrile, Cyanide, HCN, TMSCN, Lewis acid, Metal-free, Organocatalyst, C=0 bond, C=N bond, Strecker, Reissert, Aldehydes, Ketones, Imines, Aldimines, Ketoimines... 

---