Alkenes, metal catalyzed carboxylation

Alkenes and Dienes. Alkenes exhibit lower reactivity in metal-catalyzed carboxylation than in hydroformylation. The general reactivity pattern of different alkenes, however, is the same terminal linear alkenes are the most reactive substrates. Cycloalkenes are the least reactive, but strained compounds may react under very mild conditions 128... 

Diazomethane is also decomposed by N O)40 -43 and Pd(0) complexes43 . Electron-poor alkenes such as methyl acrylate are cyclopropanated efficiently with Ni(0) catalysts, whereas with Pd(0) yields were much lower (Scheme 1)43). Cyclopropanes derived from styrene, cyclohexene or 1-hexene were formed only in trace yields. In the uncatalyzed reaction between diazomethane and methyl acrylate, methyl 2-pyrazoline-3-carboxylate and methyl crotonate are formed competitively, but the yield of the latter can be largely reduced by adding an appropriate amount of catalyst. It has been verified that cyclopropane formation does not result from metal-catalyzed ring contraction of the 2-pyrazoline, Instead, a nickel(0)-carbene complex is assumed to be involved in the direct cyclopropanation of the olefin. The preference of such an intermediate for an electron-poor alkene is in agreement with the view that nickel carbenoids are nucleophilic 44). 

The transition metal-catalyzed cyclopropanation of alkenes is one of the most efficient methods for the preparation of cyclopropanes. In 1959 Dull and Abend reported [617] their finding that treatment of ketene diethylacetal with diazomethane in the presence of catalytic amounts of copper(I) bromide leads to the formation of cyclopropanone diethylacetal. The same year Wittig described the cyclopropanation of cyclohexene with diazomethane and zinc(II) iodide [494]. Since then many variations and improvements of this reaction have been reported. Today a large number of transition metal complexes are known which react with diazoalkanes or other carbene precursors to yield intermediates capable of cyclopropanating olefins (Figure 3.32). However, from the commonly used catalysts of this type (rhodium(II) or palladium(II) carboxylates, copper salts) no carbene complexes have yet been identified spectroscopically. 

Fig. 3.18. Mechanistic details on the transition-metal catalyzed (here Cu-catalyzed) cyclopropanation of styrene as a prototypical electron-rich alkene. The more bulky the substituent R of the ester group C02R, the stronger is the preference of transition state A over D and hence the larger the portion of the trans-cyclo-propane carboxylic acid ester in the product mixture.—The zwitterionic resonance form B turns out to be a better presentation of the electrophilic character of copper-carbene complexes than the (formally) charge-free resonance form C or the zwitterionic resonance form (not shown here) with the opposite charge distribution ( a to the C02R substituent, on Cu) copper-carbene complexes preferentially react with electron-rich alkenes.

In hydrocarboxylations, as in the 0x0 process, selectivity of linear versus branched products is an important issue, because (in general) mixtures of isomeric carboxylic acids are obtained, owing not only the occurrence of both Markovni-kov and anti-Markovnikov addition of the alkene to the metal hydride, but also to metal-catalyzed alkene isomerization (eq. (2)). In the case of higher olefins, Co2(CO)g as catalyst leads to a number of different carboxylic acid isomers due to the isomerization activity of the catalyst. 

Addition of carbon monoxide and water to an alkene, i.e. hydrocarboxylation, is catalyzed by a variety of transition metal complexes, including [Ni(CO)4], [Co2(CO)s] and [HaPtClg]. Unfortunately this reaction usually leads to mixtures of products due to both metal-catalyzed alkene isomerization and the occurrence of Irath Markownikov and anti-Markownikov addition of the metal hydride intermediate to the alkene. The commercially available zirconium hydride [(C5Hs)2Zr(H)Cl] can be used as a stoichiometric reagent for conversion of alkenes to carboxylic acids under mild conditions (equation 23). In this case the reaction with linear alkenes gives exclusively terminal alkyl complexes even if the alkene double bond is internal. Insertion of CO followed by oxidative hydrolysis then leads to linear carboxylic acids in very good yield. 

Several reviews compile general aspects of the applications of transition metal catalyzed hydrocyanation of alkenes and alkynes1-6. This method is synthetically interesting since, starting from nonactivated alkenes. access is achieved not only to nitriles, but also to carboxylic acid derivatives, amines and isocyanates. Of industrial importance is the double addition of hydrogen cyanide to butadienes yielding adipodinitrile7,8. 

Abstract Progress in the field of metal-catalyzed redox-neutral additions of oxygen nucleophiles (water, alcohols, carboxylic acids, and others) to alkenes, alkynes, and allenes between 2001 and 2009 is critically reviewed. Major advances in reaction chemistry include development of chiral Lewis acid catalyzed asymmetric oxa-Michael additions and Lewis-acid catalyzed hydro-alkoxylations of nonacti-vated olefins, as well as further development of Markovnikov-selective cationic gold complex-catalyzed additions of alcohols or water to alkynes and allenes. 

The transition metal-catalyzed cyclization of 2-(3-alken-l-oxy)-2-chloroacetates gives good yields of 3-(l-chloroalkyl)-2-tetrahydrofuran carboxylic esters (Equation (96)). The stereochemical course... 

In 2012, Maes and co-workers reported a new transition-metal-catalyzed methodology for the direct C2-H functionalization of piperidines [67], via pyridine-directed Ru-catalyzed C(sp )-H alkylation with alkenes [68]. Based on previous work [69-73], they discovered that a combination of a bulky alcohol (2,4-dimethyl-3-pentanol) and a catalytic amount of a carboxylic acid [74] is necessary to avoid side reactions such as isomerization and/or reduction of the alkene reactant (Scheme 11). They successfully applied this method to the total synthesis of ( )-... 

Although the reactivity and selectivity is readily tunable by variation in the carboxylic acid employed, the preference of this system toward electron-rich cis-alkenes limits its scope. Nevertheless, the high turnover numbers and efficiency achieved, the tunablity of the system, and its use of H2O2 as the terminal oxidant demonstrate that a sustainable and synthetically useful method for first-row transition metal-catalyzed AD is realizable. 

If a reaction is catalyzed by a proton add, a metal-catalyzed version may also be possible. Such is the case for addition of alcohols or carboxylic acids to alkenes and alkynes catalyzed by silver salts such as AgOTf. In hidden acid catalysis, the metal may liberate free protons that are the true catalyst. Careful control experiments are needed to test this possibility. 

Some care must be taken in drawing conclusions from the E/Z or syn/anti selectivity of a given catalyst/alkene combination. The intrinsic stereoselectivity may be altered in some cases by subsequent isomerizations initiated by the catalyst. For example, epimerization of disubstituted vinylcyclopropanes is effectively catalyzed by palladium compounds the cis - trans rearrangement of ethyl chrysanthemate or of chrysanthemic acid occurs already at room temperature in the presence of PdCl2 L2 (L = MeCN, EtCN, PhCN)96 Oxycyclopropane carboxylic esters undergo metal-... 

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). 

Hydroxycarbonylation and alkoxycarbonylation of alkenes catalyzed by metal catalyst have been studied for the synthesis of acids, esters, and related derivatives. Palladium systems in particular have been popular and their use in hydroxycarbonylation and alkoxycarbonylation reactions has been reviewed.625,626 The catalysts were mainly designed for the carbonylation of alkenes in the presence of alcohols in order to prepare carboxylic esters, but they also work well for synthesizing carboxylic acids or anhydrides.137 627 They have also been used as catalysts in many other carbonyl-based processes that are of interest to industry. The hydroxycarbonylation of butadiene, the dicarboxylation of alkenes, the carbonylation of alkenes, the carbonylation of benzyl- and aryl-halide compounds, and oxidative carbonylations have been reviewed.6 8 The Pd-catalyzed hydroxycarbonylation of alkenes has attracted considerable interest in recent years as a way of obtaining carboxylic acids. In general, in acidic media, palladium salts in the presence of mono- or bidentate phosphines afford a mixture of linear and branched acids (see Scheme 9). 

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