Alkenes Organozinc reagents

The addition usually takes place from the sterically less hindered side of the alkene. The stereochemical course of the addition can be controlled by suitably positioned oxygen center that can coordinate to the organozinc reagent. For example the reaction with 4-hydroxycyclopentene 6 as substrate exclusively yields the c -3-hydroxybicyclo [3.1.0] hexane 7 ... 

Activation. Erdik1 has reviewed the methods used since 1970 for activation of zinc and of organozinc reagents. Although chemical activation is still useful, ultrasound activation is being used increasingly. Thus sonic activation allows use of ordinary zinc for cyclopropanation of alkenes with CH2I2 in 67-97% yield and for Reformatsky-type reactions at room temperatures. 

Scheme 7.7. Alkenes as starting materials in 1,4-additions involving (functionalized) organozinc reagents.

Enantioselective alkylative ring opening of these oxabicyclic alkenes has also been studied. Lautens and coworkers discovered that palladium complexes efficiently catalyze the addition of organozinc reagents to these activated alkenes with concomitant ring opening. In the presence of (Tol-BINAP)PdCl2, diethylzinc adds to oxabenzonor-... 

Due to the low reactivity of alkyl and arylorganozinc reagents towards alkenes and alkynes, it appears clear that the carbozincation chemistry for this class of reagents is intimately associated with transition metal catalysts. Some of the metal-catalyzed/promoted reactions do indeed produce organozinc reagents as the final organometallic species that can further react with an appropriate electrophile, whereas other processes lead to highly functionalized products by an entirely different pathway. 

One of the first reports dealing with the carbozincation of alkenes by allylic organozinc reagents was the addition of allylzinc bromide to the homoallylic amine 118 which occurred in refluxing THF. A secondary organozinc 119 was regioselectively produced and provided the amine 120 after hydrolysis. A small amount of aminoalcohol 121, resulting from oxidation of 119, was also isolated when the reaction mixture was exposed to air (equation 52)80,81. 

Allylic organozinc reagents display a unique reactivity towards alkenyl-, allenyl- and alkynylmetals. Allenic organozinc reagents which are in metallotropic equilibrium with their propargylic counterparts (equation 150) also share some similarities with allylic organozinc reagents in their behavior towards alkenes and alkynes. 

Reductive coupling of polyhaloalkanes with carbonyl compounds in the presence of Zn is used in the synthesis of various halogen-substituted alkenes. For example, the reaction of benzaldehyde with the organozinc reagent 4.101 gives the trifluoromethyl-substituted alkene 4.102 (Scheme 4.50). 

Organozinc reagents have played an important role in the development of efficient catalysts for enantioselective carbon-carbon bond-formation by lj4-addition to a, -unsaturated compounds. Important advantages of the use of organozinc reagents are the option of starting with alkenes (throu hydroboration-zinc transfer procedures) and the tolerance towards functional groups. 

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