Aldehydes sulfone conjugate additions

The conjugate addition of tributylstannylmethyllithium to unsaturated sulfones 100, followed by trapping with an aldehyde, provides a route to the allyl alcohol 101 which may be transformed into 2(5H)-furanones (equation 81)67. 

A large number of reactions have been presented in this chapter. However, all of these reactions involve an enolate ion (or a related species) acting as a nucleophile (see Table 20.2). This nucleophile reacts with one of the electrophiles discussed in Chapters 8, 18, and 19 (see Table 20.3). The nucleophile can bond to the electrophilic carbon of an alkyl halide (or sulfonate ester) in an SN2 reaction, to the electrophilic carbonyl carbon of an aldehyde or ketone in an addition reaction (an aldol condensation), to the electrophilic carbonyl carbon of an ester in an addition reaction (an ester condensation) or to the electrophilic /3-carbon of an a,/3-unsaturated compound in a conjugate addition (Michael reaction). These possibilities are summarized in the following equations ... 

This reaction illustrates a stereoselective preparation of (Z)-vinylic cuprates, 5 which are very useful synthetic Intermediates. They react with a variety of electrophiles such as carbon dioxide,5,6 epoxides,5,6 aldehydes,6 allylic halides,7 alkyl halides,7 and acetylenic halides 7 they undergo conjugate addition to a,6-unsaturated esters,5 6 ketones,6 aldehydes,6 and sulfones.8 Finally they add smoothly to activated triple bonds6 such as HCSC-OEt, HC3C-SEt, HC=C-CH(0Et)2. In most cases these cuprates transfer both alkenyl groups. The uses and applications of the carbocupration reaction have been reviewed recently.9 The configurational purity in the final product 1s at least 99.951 Z in the above transformations. 

The synthesis of the C1-C7 fragment, which corresponds to the lactone, starts with the homoallylic alcohol 2 which was prepared from 1. The existing stereocenter and the conjugate addition method of Evans [21] allow the control of the C5 stereocenter. The homoallylic alcohol 2 was oxidatively cleaved and homologated to the trans enoate 3 by a Wittig olefination. Treatment of 3 with benzaldehyde and a catalytic amount of KHMDS provided acetal 4. The internal Michael addition of the hemiacetal intermediate proceeds with complete stereoselectivity [22]. After deprotection and oxidation, the corresponding aldehyde was treated with Amberlyst-15 and then with camphor sulfonic acid (CSA), to yield pyrane 5 as a mixture of (3- and a-anomers (1.8/1). This compound was converted to the thiophenyl acetal 6 (4 steps) as this compound can be hydrolyzed later under mild conditions (Hg +) with subsequent oxidation of the lactol to the desired lactone. Compound 6 represents the C1-C7 fragment of discodermolide (Scheme 1). 

Lately, sulfones have become especially important substrates in organocatalysis [87]. First studies on the asymmetric conjugate addition of aldehydes to vinyl sulfones were carried out by Alexakis and Mossd employing as catalyst bipyrrolidine 30 (25 mol%) for the addition of linear and a-branched aldehydes to l,l-bis(benzenesulfonyl)ethylene [88], Large excess of aldehyde (10 equivalents) was required and moderate levels of enantioselection were obtained for linear aldehydes (53-80% ee), while reactions with a-branched nucleophiles led to racemic or very low selectivities (0-12% ee). With respect to the mechanism, the acyclic synclinal model proposed by Seebach and GoUnski [70] involving a trans enamine intermediate was postulated. 

Some years later, further developments by Alexakis et al. have shown that prolinol derivative 22a (10 mol%) is a better catalysts for the reaction [89]. The results vary from good, for conjugate addition of linear aldehydes to l,l-bis(benzenesulfonyl) ethylene (77-90% yields 76-93% ee), to moderate (12-91% ee) when using a-branched aldehydes as nucleophiles. Catalyst 22a has been also used by Palomo et al. for the enantioselective conjugate addition of linear and 3-branched aldehydes to E-a-ethoxycarbonyl vinyl sulfones and -a-cyano vinyl sulfones [90], derivatives that after further transformations, which usually involve a reductive desulfonylation process [91], have made possible the synthesis of different interesting chiral building blocks. 

Iminium activation has been recently used to achieve the enantioseleclive conjugate addition of geminal bis(sulfone)s and p-keto sulfones to a,P-unsaturated aldehydes. Almost simultaneously, different groups have reported the efficient use of catalyst 22a in the addition of bis(phenylsulfonyl)methane [200] and fluorobis(phenylsulfonyl) methane [201] to a wide variety of enals to yield the corresponding Michael adducts in excellent yields and enantioselectivities (Scheme 2.72). This reaction is particularly attractive since allows the preparation of interesting chiral building blocks by further synthetic transformations over the aldehyde moiety and reductive desulfonylation [91] of the bis(phenylsulfonyl) group. 

S.2.2.3. a, -Unsaturated Sulfones, Malononitriles, and Maleimides as Acceptors, Base on their previous achievements on the asymmetric Michael addition of aldehydes [24], Lu and co-workers [55] developed the first enantiose-lective conjugate addition of cyclic ketones to vinyl sulfone catalyzed by a primary amine 57 (Scheme 5.28). Various cyclic ketones could be applied, affording the corresponding adducts in good yields and with high to excellent enantioselectivities. However, linear ketones were not suitable substrates for this catalytic system. Performing the desulfonylation procedure on a-substituted ketones and in combination... 

Mosse and Alexakis [66] reported in 2005 the first organocatalyzed 1,4-conjugate addition of aldehydes to vinyl sulfones. The organocatalyst, N-tPr-2,2 -bipyrrolidine (2), induced a good enantioselectivity when using l,l-bis(benzenesulfonyl) ethylene (72) while phenyl vinyl sulfone (73) was not reactive under the same conditions (Scheme 34.26). As product 74 is sensitive to silica gel, it is accompanied by byproduct 75. To explain the observed selectivity, the authors suggested a transition state where the pyrroUdine moiety bearing the isopropyl substituent shields the Re face of the enamine and locks the conformation of the enamine intermediate. 

Sulzer-Mosse S, Alexakis A, Mareda J, Bollot G, Bemardi-nelli G, Filinchuk Y. Enantioselective organocatalytic conjugate addition of aldehydes to vinyl sulfones and vinyl phosphonates as challenging Michael acceptors. Chem. Eur. J. 2009 15(13) 3204-3220. 

Landa A, Maestro M, Masdeu C, Puente A, Vera S, Oiarbide M, Palomo C. Highly enantioselective conjugate additions of aldehydes to vinyl sulfones. Chem. Eur. J. 2009 15(7) 1562-1565. 

Amides are very weak nucleophiles, far too weak to attack alkyl halides, so they must first be converted to their conjugate bases. By this method, unsubstituted amides can be converted to N-substituted, or N-substituted to N,N-disubstituted, amides. Esters of sulfuric or sulfonic acids can also be substrates. Tertiary substrates give elimination. O-Alkylation is at times a side reaction. Both amides and sulfonamides have been alkylated under phase-transfer conditions. Lactams can be alkylated using similar procedures. Ethyl pyroglutamate (5-carboethoxy 2-pyrrolidinone) and related lactams were converted to N-alkyl derivatives via treatment with NaH (short contact time) followed by addition of the halide. 2-Pyrrolidinone derivatives can be alkylated using a similar procedure. Lactams can be reductively alkylated using aldehydes under catalytic hydrogenation... 

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