Aldol reaction chelation control

The nucleophilic component reacts in the aldol reaction in its enoUc form, usually chelated to a metallic cation as E- or Z-enolate. The stereochemistry of metal chelates plays a primary role in the stereoselectivity of the aldol reaction by controlled formation of syn- or anh -diastereomers. As a mle -isomers of enolates lead to anri-aldol products and Z-isomers to syn products. This outcome is explained by the Zimmerman-Traxler mechanism, which invokes a six-membered transition state (Scheme 4.10) [8, 9]. 

The Mukaiyama variation of the aldol reaction also allows 1,3-induced chelation control. Thus, the reaction of the enolsilane or silylketene acetal with (5 )-3-benzyloxybutanal results in both cases in the predominant formation of the cwt/ -adduct (92 8 and 90 10), respectively14. 

Aldol addition and related reactions of enolates and enolate equivalents are the subject of the first part of Chapter 2. These reactions provide powerful methods for controlling the stereochemistry in reactions that form hydroxyl- and methyl-substituted structures, such as those found in many antibiotics. We will see how the choice of the nucleophile, the other reagents (such as Lewis acids), and adjustment of reaction conditions can be used to control stereochemistry. We discuss the role of open, cyclic, and chelated transition structures in determining stereochemistry, and will also see how chiral auxiliaries and chiral catalysts can control the enantiose-lectivity of these reactions. Intramolecular aldol reactions, including the Robinson annulation are discussed. Other reactions included in Chapter 2 include Mannich, carbon acylation, and olefination reactions. The reactivity of other carbon nucleophiles including phosphonium ylides, phosphonate carbanions, sulfone anions, sulfonium ylides, and sulfoxonium ylides are also considered. 

The stereochemical outcome of the Mukaiyama reaction can be controlled by the type of Lewis acid used. With bidentate Lewis acids the aldol reaction led to the anti products through a Cram chelate control [366]. Alternatively, the use of a monoden-tate Lewis acid in this reaction led to the syn product through an open Felkin-Anh... 

LA represents Lewis acid in the catalyst, and M represents Bren sled base. In Scheme 8-49, Bronsted base functionality in the hetero-bimetalic chiral catalyst I can deprotonate a ketone to produce the corresponding enolate II, while at the same time the Lewis acid functionality activates an aldehyde to give intermediate III. Intramolecular aldol reaction then proceeds in a chelation-controlled manner to give //-keto metal alkoxide IV. Proton exchange between the metal alkoxide moiety and an aromatic hydroxy proton or an a-proton of a ketone leads to the production of an optically active aldol product and the regeneration of the catalyst I, thus finishing the catalytic cycle. 

Access to the corresponding enantiopure hydroxy esters 133 and 134 of smaller fragments 2 with R =Me employed a highly stereoselective (ds>95%) Evans aldol reaction of allenic aldehydes 113 and rac-114 with boron enolate 124 followed by silylation to arrive at the y-trimethylsilyloxy allene substrates 125 and 126, respectively, for the crucial oxymercuration/methoxycarbonylation process (Scheme 19). Again, this operation provided the desired tetrahydrofurans 127 and 128 with excellent diastereoselectivity (dr=95 5). Chemoselective hydrolytic cleavage of the chiral auxiliary, chemoselective carboxylic acid reduction, and subsequent diastereoselective chelation-controlled enoate reduction (133 dr of crude product=80 20, 134 dr of crude product=84 16) eventually provided the pure stereoisomers 133 and 134 after preparative HPLC. 

This dual behaviour must allow control of the configuration at the a carbon atom in an aldol reaction, provided that one can control whether or not the metal is chelated at the time the aldol condensation occurs. Thornton and Nerz-Stormes [35] reported an approach to this problem by using titanium enolates to obtain "non-Evans" 5jn-aldols. On the other hand, Heathcock and his associated found that aldehydes react with chelated boron enolates 100b to afford the anh-aldols 102 or the "non-Evans" i yn-aldols 103 depending upon the reaction conditions (Scheme 9.32). 

The chelation between a Boc group and Mg(II) is often used to control the stereochemistry in aldol reactions. For instance, Donohoe and House have reported the diasteroselec-tive reductive aldol reactions of Boc-protected electron-deficient pyrroles. The key step of the synthesis is the preparation of an exocyclic magnesium enolate of Boc-protected 2-substituted pyrroles. ... 

Conseqnently, the magnesinm chelate 71 can also react as a nucleophilic donor in aldol reactions. In the chemistry involving magnesium chelates, these two aspects model their mode of action as nucleophilic partners in aldol condensations. This is exemplified in aldol condensations of y-diketones . Thus, sodium hydroxyde catalyzed cyclization of diketone 73 to give a mixtnre of 3,5,5-trimethyl-cyclopent-2-enone 74 and 3,4,4-trimethyl-cyclopent-2-enone 75 in a 2.2/1 isomeric ratio (equation 100). When treated with magnesinm methanolate, the insertion of a a-methoxy carbonyl group as control element, as in 76, allows the formation of a chelated magnesium enolate 77, and the major prodnct is now mainly the aldol 78. This latter treated with aqueous NaOH provides the trimethylcyclopent-2-enones 74 and 75 in a 1/49 ratio. 

The design for a direct catalytic asymmetric aldol reaction of aldehydes and unmodified ketones with bifunctional catalysts is shown in Figure 36. A Brpnsted basic functionality (OM) in the heterobimetallic asymmetric catalyst (I) could deprotonate the a-proton of a ketone to generate the metal enolate (II), while at the same time a Lewis acidic functionality (LA) could activate an aldehyde to give (III), which would then react with the metal enolate (in a chelation-controlled fashion) in an asymmetric environment to afford a P-keto metal alkoxide (IV). 

On the other hand, chelation-controlled aldol reactions usually provide the awh -Cram aldol. This has been early illustrated by Heathcock and coworkers76 who reported that the proportion of the exclusive syn condensation products B and C (>98%) of the bulky enolate A (Scheme 116) was completely reversed when a chelating group was present on the aldehyde backbone (although the chelating ability of the f-butyl dimethylsilyloxy group is questionable566). 

The stereoselective chelation-controlled aldol reaction of unsubstituted lithium ester enolates with (7 s)-2-(p-tolylsulfinyl) cyclohexanone A (Figure 16) led to a high enantio-face differentiation (> 90 < 10), while the simple diastereoselection was rather low for prochiral enolates567. The role of the lithium cation acting as a template is here essential, since sodium, potassium, HMPA or even added ZnCl2 resulted in decreased yield and selectivity. 

Acylation, Alkylation, and Aldolization (Acyl Species-+ a-, P-, or a/fi-Functionalized Acyl Product) Alkylation reactions of sodium enolates of various lV-acyl-a-methyltoluene-2,a-sultams with selected (both activated and nonactivated ) alkyl iodides and bromides proceed with good C(a)-re stereocontrol (90-99% de). Analogous acylations with various acid chlorides can also be performed, giving p-keto products (97-99% de). Selective reduction of these latter products with Zinc Borohydride (chelate controlled, 82.6-98.2% de) or N-Selectride (nonchelate controlled, 95.8-99.6% de) can provide syn- and anft-aldol derivatives, respectively. ... 

P-Keto esters and -keto amides, each substituted between the two carbonyl units with a 2-[2-(tri-methylsilyl)methyl] group, also undergo Lewis acid catalyzed, chelation-controlled cyclization. When titanium tetrachloride is used, only the product possessing a cis relationship between the hydroxy and ester (or amide) groups is product yields range from 65 to 88% (Table 8). While loss of stereochemistry in the product and equilibration of diastereomers could have occurred via a Lewis acid promoted retro aldol-aldol sequence, none was observed. Consequently, it is assumed that the reactions occur under kinetic, rather than thermodynamic, control. In contrast to the titanium tetrachloride promoted process, fluoride-induced cyclization produces a 2 1 mixture of diastereomeric products, and the nonchelating Lewis acid BF3-OEt2 leads to a 1 4.8 mixture of diastereomers. 

LiC104 was shown to be a more compatible Lewis acid for chelation in an ethereal solvent—when TiCU, a typical chelation agent for a-alkoxyaldehydes, was used in EtaO for alkylation of 79, moderate diastereoselectivity (68 32) was obtained. Rapid injection NMR studies of the TiCU-promoted chelation-controlled Mukaiyama aldol reaction and the Sakurai reaction show that an acyclic transition state must be involved in which the silyl groups never reach the carbonyl oxygen atom. In LPDE-mediated enolsilane additions silylated products predominate. Obviously, the mechanism is different—it is a group-transfer aldol reaction [107]. 

The relative rate increase with LiC104 (3 mol %) in CH2CI2 was also observed in a case involving the aldolization of A jA -dibenzyl-protected aminoaldehyde, where anti-product predominates, as a result of non-chelation control. When attempted in Et20, the transformation is successful only when 5.0 m LPDE is used. Moreover, a reaction time of 18 h at room temperature sufficed for complete conversion of iso-butyraldehyde, while reacting less rapidly to the desirable product [108]. 

The directed aldol reaction in the presence of TiC found many applications in natural product synthesis. Equation (7) shows an example of the aldol reaction utilized in the synthesis of tautomycin [46], in which many sensitive functional groups survived the reaction conditions. The production of the depicted single isomer after the titanium-mediated aldol reaction could be rationalized in terms of the chelation-controlled (anft-Felkin) reaction path [37]. A stereochemical model has been presented for merged 1,2- and 1,3-asymmetric induction in diastereoselective Mukaiyama aldol reaction and related processes [47]. 

---