Unactivated alkenes

Addition of nucleophiles to both activated and unactivated alkenes is catalyzed by Pd(II). Addition of alcohols or AcOH to alkenes bearing EWGs is catalyzed by PdCl2(PhCN)2 to give the corresponding ethers and esters. The addition of an alcohol to the cyclic acetal of acrolein 82 to give the ether 83 is also possible with the same catalyst[64]. Amines add to the vinylic ether 84 to give 85, but not to simple alkenes[65]. 

Reactions of this type are mostly performed with internal nucleophiles attached to the carbon atom adjacent to the iminium nitrogen, thus leading to tropane-like azabicyclic systems. Both allyl- and propargylsilanes, activated and unactivated alkenes, and ketones have been successfully used as nucleophiles. The products 1 and 2 are also obtained via two consecutive C —C bond-forming reactions in a single operation. 

Regiocontrolled and stereocontrolled Diels-Alder cycioadditions of 2-pyrones and unactivated unbranched 1 -alkenes [73]... 

The reactive compound chlorosulfonyl isocyanate (ClSOaNCO, forms P-lactams even with unactivated alkenes, as well as with imines, allenes, conjugated dienes, and cyclopropenes. With microwave irradiation, alkyl isocyanates also... 

Intramolecular cycloadditions between cyclobutadiene and an oxygen-tethered unactivated alkene (alkyne) offers an attractive route to benzo[c]furans (Scheme 26, <96JA9196>). 

The pincer complexes 89-90 (Fig. 2.14) catalyse the intramolecular hydroamination/ cyclisation of unactivated alkenes, yielding pyrrolidines and piperidines (n = 1,2, respectively). The reactions can be carried out in benzene or water with high... 

This reagent can achieve better than 90% yields for a variety of unactivated alkenes. 

In aqueous media, the addition of unactivated alkynes to unactivated alkenes to form Alder-ene products has been realized by using a ruthenium catalyst (Eq. 3.44).180 A polar medium (DMF H20 = 1 1) favors the reaction and benefits the selectivity. The reaction was proposed to proceed via a ruthenacycle intermediate. 

Wilkinson reports the first homogeneous hydrogenation of an, <, R Rh(PPh3)3CI unactivated alkene [22-24] h2... 

A tremendous amount of progress has been made over the past decade in the understanding of the catalyzed reductive coupling of unactivated alkenes and alkynes. Both early and late transition metal complexes accomplish the reaction with good yields and with low catalyst loadings. Enynes and dienes can... 

Another example of an intramolecular cyclization initiated by reactions of an acyliminium ion [32] with an unactivated alkene has been published by Veenstra and coworkers. In their total synthesis of CGP 49823 (1-116), a potent NK antagonist [33], these authors treated the N,O-acetal 1-112 with 2 equiv. of chlorosulfonic acid in acetonitrile to afford acyliminium ion 1-113 (Scheme 1.29) [34]. This is qualified for a cyclization, creating piperidine cation 1-114, which is then trapped by... 

The limitation to electron-rich alkenes in Rh(II)-catalyzed cyclopropanation with phenyldiazomethane leaves untouched the great versatility of zinc halides for this purpose with this, catalyst, efficient and very mild cyclopropanation of 1,3-dienes and unactivated alkenes has been reported 46). 

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... 

COD = cyclooctadiene) not only for the ketone substrate, but also for terminal and cyclic unactivated alkenes (Table 1). 

Sandhu reported that conjugated nitrones react with unactivated alkenes under microwave activation more rapidly (6-15 min) than in the corresponding thermolytic or sonochemical reactions [32 a],... 

In this context, alkynes have been investigated under carbometallation conditions in order to generate tri- or tetrasubstituted alkenes with very good stereochemical control.46 For the unactivated triple bonds, the major issue is the regioselectivity of the reaction. 

A few examples of the intermolecular hydroalkoxylation of unactivated alkenes have also appeared in the literature. While limited results have been obtained with aliphatic alcohols using a Cp RuCl2(PPh3)/AgOTf... 

Intermolecular bis-silylation of unactivated alkenes has been achieved initially with a zerovalent platinum catalyst such as Pt(PPh3)4 (Equations (30) and (31)).101 1,2-Difluorotetramethyldisilane undergoes addition to ethylene and norbornene in the presence of Pt(PPh3)4 catalyst at 150 °G to give the corresponding adducts in 95% and 26% yields, respectively. For the addition of 1,2-diphenyltetramethyldisilane to ethylene, Pt(PMe3)4 (33% yield) was found to be more active than Pt(PPh3)4 (4% yield). 

Conjugated dienes (such as 1,3-cyclohexadiene, cyclopentadiene, 2,4-hexadienoic-sorbic-acid) and polyenes can be selectively hydrogenated to monoenes unactivated alkenes are totally unreactive [20]. Unfortunately, the possibilities for modification of the catalyst by ligand alteration or by the use of additives are very limited [50, 51]. 

Scheme 6.12. Enantioselective carbo-aluminations of unactivated alkenes are promoted by neutral (37) and cationic (38 + B(C6F5)3) chiral Zr complexes.

For a review of enantioselec-tive carbometallation of unactivated alkenes (both catalytic and non-catalytic), see I. 

Unactivated alkenes, however, can be hydrostannated in good yields, with Pd(OH)2/C as a heterogeneous catalyst (Equations (27) and (28)).109... 

We initially observed an addition reaction of tertiary phosphines to unactivated alkynes. The method was then applied to reactive alkenes, allenes and 1,3-dienes, and finally to unactivated alkenes (Scheme 4). Such a step-up methodology turned out to be effective in this study. 

In general, transition metal-catalyzed addition reactions to 1,3-dienes gave 1,4-adducts via 7t-allyl metal intermediates.23 The ar //-Markovnikov 1,2-addition mode of this reaction is therefore unusual (Scheme 17). It was noted that the configuration of the 3-olefin was retained with either ( )- or (Z)-1,3-dienes. The observation that the 3-olefin was unimportant for this reaction strongly suggests that the method could be applicable to unactivated alkenes. 

---