Alkenes asymmetric nucleophilic addition

A formal asymmetric nucleophilic addition to carbonyl compounds is achieved by Trost and his co-workers in the allylic alkylation of acylals of alkenals. An excellent enantioselectivity is observed in this alkylation. The starting acylals are easily prepared by the Lewis-acid catalyzed addition of acid anhydrides to aldehydes, by use of Trost s ligand 118 (Scheme 13), where various carbon-centered nucleophiles are available (Scheme l4),101,101a-10lc Asymmetric synthesis of some natural products is achieved according to this procedure. 

Asymmetric Nucleophilic Addition to Electron Deficient Alkenes... 

A number of techniques are now available allowing the preparation of enantiomerically pure (or at least enriched) compounds via asymmetric nucleophilic addition to electron-deficient alkenes. Some of these transformations have already been successfully applied in total synthesis. In most cases, the methods are based on diastereoselective reactions, employing chirally modified substrates or nucleophiles. There are only very few useful enantioselective procedures accessible so far. The search for efficient en-antioselective methods, especially for those which are catalytic and do not require the use of stoichiometric amounts of chiral auxiliaries, remains a challenging task for the future. 

Schmalz, H.-G. Asymmetric Nucleophilic Addition to Electron Deficient Alkenes. in Comp. Org. Synth, (eds. Trost, B. M.,Eleming, I.), 4, 199-236 (Pergamon, Oxford, 1991). 

In contrast to a, -ethylenic ketones or even a, -ethylenic sulfones, a, ) -ethylenic sulfoxides generally are not sufficiently electrophilic to undergo successful nucleophilic j8-addition . a-Carbonyl-a, j8-ethylenic sulfoxides, however, are potent, doubly activated alkenes which undergo rapid and complete -addition of various types of nucleophiles even at — 78 °C. A brief account summarizing this area is available . The stereochemical outcome of such asymmetric conjugate additions to enantiomerically pure 2-sulfmyl 2-cycloalkenones and 2-sulfinyl-2-alkenolides has been rationalized in terms of a metal-chelated intermediate in which a metal ion locks the -carbonyl sulfoxide into a rigid conformation (36 cf. 33). In this fixed conformation, one diastereoface of the cyclic n... 

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