Copper metal alkenes

There are no mechanistic details known from intermediates of copper, like we have seen in the studies on metathesis, where both metal alkylidene complexes and metallacyclobutanes that are active catalysts have been isolated and characterised. The copper catalyst must fulfil two roles, first it must decompose the diazo compound in the carbene and dinitrogen and secondly it must transfer the carbene fragment to an alkene. Copper carbene species, if involved, must be rather unstable, but yet in view of the enantioselective effect of the ligands on copper, clearly the carbene fragment must be coordinated to copper. It is generally believed that the copper carbene complex is rather a copper carbenoid complex, as the highly reactive species has reactivities very similar to free carbenes. It has not the character of a metal-alkylidene complex that we have encountered on the left-hand-side of the periodic table in metathesis (Chapter 16). Carbene-copper species have been observed in situ (in a neutral copper species containing an iminophosphanamide as the anion), but they are still very rare [9],... 

Solutions of copper(I) salts such as CuCl or Cu(CF3S03) readily absorb alkenes but it is frequently difficult to isolate crystalline solids with well defined stoichiometries, unless more traditional ligands are present, such as dien or pyridine.256"259 Complexes may alternatively be prepared from the copper(II) salt in ethanol in the presence of an alkene by a suitable reducing agent (see Figures 1-3). If ethylene is added to an aqueous solution of copper metal and... 

The cyclopropanation of alkenes, alkynes, and aromatic compounds by carbenoids generated in the metal-catalyzed decomposition of diazo ketones has found widespread use as a method for carbon-carbon bond construction for many years, and intramolecular applications of these reactions have provided a useful cyclization strategy. Historically, copper metal, cuprous chloride, cupric sulfate, and other copper salts were used most commonly as catalysts for such reactions however, the superior catalytic activity of rhodium(ll) acetate dimer has recently become well-established.3 This commercially available rhodium salt exhibits high catalytic activity for the decomposition of diazo ketones even at very low catalyst substrate ratios (< 1%) and is less capricious than the old copper catalysts. We recommend the use of rhodium(ll) acetate dimer in preference to copper catalysts in all diazo ketone decomposition reactions. The present synthesis describes a typical cyclization procedure. 

There are examples of other halomethanes that can undergo radical addition. a-Haloesters have been successfully added to alkenes in the presence of copper metal. The copper serves as an electron transfer initiator. The 7-haloester adduct cyclizes to a lactone. The reaction works best when Nal is also used to convert the bromide to the more reactive iodide. " ... 

We reported recently on the radical additions of alkyl 2-iodoalkanoates [5] to alkenes initiated by copper metal in the absence of solvent to give y-lactones (6,7) (Scheme 1). The reaction procedure is very simple the alkene, iodo compound, and commercial copper powder are mixed without any pretreatment in a ratio of 1 1.3 1.3 and heated to 100-130°C in an inert atmosphere for some hours. After a simple work-up procedure, the products are obtained analytically pure and in satisfactory yields. Primary (Table 1, entry 1), secondary (entries 2-5), and tertiary (entry 6) alkyl 2-iodoalkanoates [5] have been added to methyl 10-undecenoate [2b]. 

Previously we pointed out that the oxidation of alkenes in water allows one-pot multi-step reactions to be carried out involving tandem epoxidation and ring-opening reactions. Further examples are the synthesis of optically active trifluorolactic acid by aqueous nitric acid ring-opening oxidation of (-)-l,2-epoxy-3,3,3-trifluoropropane [19] in the presence of a catalytic amount of copper metal ... 

The reactions of nitrones constitute the absolute majority of metal-catalyzed asymmetric 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions. Boron, aluminum, titanium, copper and palladium catalysts have been tested for the inverse electron-demand 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of nitrones with electron-rich alkenes. Fair enantioselectivities of up to 79% ee were obtained with oxazaborolidinone catalysts. However, the AlMe-3,3 -Ar-BINOL complexes proved to be superior for reactions of both acyclic and cyclic nitrones and more than >99% ee was obtained in some reactions. The Cu(OTf)2-BOX catalyst was efficient for reactions of the glyoxylate-derived nitrones with vinyl ethers and enantioselectivities of up to 93% ee were obtained. 

The diazonio group of arenediazonium salts can be replaced by alkenes and alkynes or, seen from the other reaction partner, alkenes and alkynes can be arylated with arenediazonium salts. The reactions are catalyzed by copper salts and, as found more recently, also by salts of palladium and other metals. 

Similar transformations have been performed with Danishefsky s diene and glyoxylate esters [85] catalyzed by bis (oxazoHne)-metal complexes to afford the hetero Diels-Alder product in 70% isolated yield and up to 72% ee. Jorgensen [86,87] reported a highly enantioselective, catalytic hetero Diels-Alder reaction of ketones and similar chiral copper(II) complexes leading to enantiomeric excesses up to 99% (Scheme 31, reaction 2). They also described [88] a highly diastereo- and enantioselective catalytic hetero Diels-Alder reaction of /I, y-imsaturated a-ketoesters with electron-rich alkenes... 

Nitrene addition to alkenes can be aided by the nse of a transition metal, such as copper, rhodium, ruthenium, iron, cobalt, etc. NHC-Cu catalysts have been used in nitrene addition. For example [Cu(DBM)(IPr)] 147 (DBM = dibenzoyl-methane) was successfully employed in the aziridination of aliphatic alkenes 144 in presence of trichloroethylsulfamate ester 145 and iodosobenzene 146 (Scheme 5.38) [43]. 

Aziridination of alkenes can be carried out using N-(p- to I ucncsu I I o n y I i m i n o) phenyliodinane and copper triflate or other copper salts.257 These reactions are mechanistically analogous to metal-catalyzed cyclopropanation. Rhodium acetate also acts as a catalyst.258 Other arenesulfonyliminoiodinanes can be used,259 as can chloroamine T260 and bromoamine T.261 The range of substituted alkenes that react includes acrylate esters.262... 

The thermo- and photocycloaddition of alkenes will be discussed in Chapter 12, on pericyclic reactions. On the other hand, transition-metals have effectively catalyzed some synthetically useful cycloaddition reactions in water. For example, Lubineau and co-worker reported a [4 + 3] cycloaddition by reacting a,a-dibromo ketones with furan or cyclopen-tadiene mediated by iron or copper, or a-chloro ketones in the presence of triethylamine (Eq. 3.48).185... 

Whereas metal-catalyzed decomposition of simple diazoketones in the presence of ketene acetals yields dihydrofurans 121,124,134), cyclopropanes usually result from reaction with enol ethers, enol acetates and silyl enol ethers, just as with unactivated alkenes 13). l-Acyl-2-alkoxycyclopropanes were thus obtained by copper-catalyzed reactions between diazoacetone and enol ethers 79 105,135), enol acetates 79,135 and... 

The reaction, formally speaking a [3 + 2] cycloaddition between the aldehyde and a ketocarbene, resembles the dihydrofuran formation from 57 a or similar a-diazoketones and alkenes (see Sect. 2.3.1). For that reaction type, 2-diazo-l,3-dicarbonyl compounds and ethyl diazopyruvate 56 were found to be suited equally well. This similarity pertains also to the reactivity towards carbonyl functions 1,3-dioxole-4-carboxylates are also obtained by copper chelate catalyzed decomposition of 56 in the presence of aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes as well as enolizable ketones 276). No such products were reported for the catalyzed decomposition of ethyl diazoacetate in the presence of the same ketones 271,272). The reasons for the different reactivity of ethoxycarbonylcarbene and a-ketocarbenes (or the respective metal carbenes) have only been speculated upon so far 276). 

In order to rationalize the catalyst-dependent selectivity of cyclopropanation reaction with respect to the alkene, the ability of a transition metal for olefin coordination has been considered to be a key factor (see Sect. 2.2.1 and 2.2.2). It was proposed that palladium and certain copper catalysts promote cyclopropanation through intramolecular carbene transfer from a metal carbene to an alkene molecule coordinated to the same metal atom25,64. The preferential cyclopropanation of terminal olefins and the less hindered double bond in dienes spoke in favor of metal-olefin coordination. Furthermore, stable and metastable metal-carbene-olefin complexes are known, some of which undergo intramolecular cyclopropane formation, e.g. 426 - 427 415). 

Cyclopropanation reactions can be promoted using copper or rhodium catalysts or indeed systems based on other metals. As early as 1965 Nozaki showed that chiral copper complexes could promote asymmetric addition of a carbenoid species (derived from a diazoester) to an alkene. This pioneering study was embroidered by Aratani and co-workers who showed a highly enantioselective process could be obtained by modifying the chiral copper... 

The seminal report of an asymmetric homogeneous metal-catalyzed reaction described the copper-catalyzed group-transfer reaction from a diazoester to an alkene, Eq. 3 (2). This article provided experimental verification of the intervention of copper carbenoid olefin complexes in the catalytic decomposition of diazo com-... 

In 1965, Denney et al. (98) reported the reaction of a number of alkenes with ferf-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) and cupric salts of chiral acids. The use of ethyl camphorate copper complex 144 in the allylic oxidation of cyclopentene provides, upon reduction of the camphorate ester, the allylic alcohol in low yield and low selectivity, Eq. 82. The initial publication only provided the observed rotation of cyclopentenol, but comparison to subsequent literature values (99) reveals that this reaction proceeds in 12% ee and 43% yield (based on the metal complex). 

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