Aldehydes organometallic reagents

Aldehydes are "prochiral", thus addition of an organometallic reagent to an aldehydes may be stereoselective,... 

As described in Section 2.3.2, vinylaziridines are versatile intermediates for the stereoselective synthesis of (E)-alkene dipeptide isosteres. One of the simplest methods for the synthesis of alkene isosteres such as 242 and 243 via aziridine derivatives of type 240 and 241 (Scheme 2.59) involves the use of chiral anti- and syn-amino alcohols 238 and 239, synthesizable in turn from various chiral amino aldehydes 237. However, when a chiral N-protected amino aldehyde derived from a natural ot-amino acid is treated with an organometallic reagent such as vinylmag-nesium bromide, a mixture of anti- and syn-amino alcohols 238 and 239 is always obtained. Highly stereoselective syntheses of either anti- or syn-amino alcohols 238 or 239, and hence 2,3-trans- or 2,3-as-3-alkyl-2-vinylaziridines 240 or 241, from readily available amino aldehydes 237 had thus hitherto been difficult. Ibuka and coworkers overcame this difficulty by developing an extremely useful epimerization of vinylaziridines. Palladium(0)-catalyzed reactions of 2,3-trons-2-vinylaziri-dines 240 afforded the thermodynamically more stable 2,3-cis isomers 241 predominantly over 240 (241 240 >94 6) through 7i-allylpalladium intermediates, in accordance with ab initio calculations [29]. This epimerization allowed a highly stereoselective synthesis of (E) -alkene dipeptide isosteres 243 with the desired L,L-... 

The addition of an achiral organometallic reagent (R M) to a chiral carbonyl compound 1 (see Section 1.3.1.1.) leads to a mixture of diastercomers 2 (syn/anti) which can be either racemic, or enantiomerically enriched or pure, depending on whether the substrates are race-mates or pure enantiomers. This section incorporates only those reactions starting from optically pure a-amino aldehydes, however, optical purity of the starting material has not been demonstrated in all cases. 

As well as the addition of achiral organometallic reagents to chiral aldehydes (see also Sections 1.3.2. and 1.3.3.), the addition of chiral organometallic reagents to carbonyl compounds is a well-known and intensively studied process which may lead to enantiomerically and/or diastereomerically enriched products. Chiral organometallic reagents can be classified into three groups ... 

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