Alkenes, with acids metal catalyzed

Scheeren et al. reported the first enantioselective metal-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction of nitrones with alkenes in 1994 [26]. Their approach involved C,N-diphenylnitrone la and ketene acetals 2, in the presence of the amino acid-derived oxazaborolidinones 3 as the catalyst (Scheme 6.8). This type of boron catalyst has been used successfully for asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions [27, 28]. In this reaction the nitrone is activated, according to the inverse electron-demand, for a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition with the electron-rich alkene. The reaction is thus controlled by the LUMO inone-HOMOaikene interaction. They found that coordination of the nitrone to the boron Lewis acid strongly accelerated the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction with ketene acetals. The reactions of la with 2a,b, catalyzed by 20 mol% of oxazaborolidinones such as 3a,b were carried out at -78 °C. In some reactions fair enantioselectivities were induced by the catalysts, thus, 4a was obtained with an optical purity of 74% ee, however, in a low yield. The reaction involving 2b gave the C-3, C-4-cis isomer 4b as the only diastereomer of the product with 62% ee. 

Several titanium(IV) complexes are efficient and reliable Lewis acid catalysts and they have been applied to numerous reactions, especially in combination with the so-called TADDOL (a, a,a, a -tetraaryl-l,3-dioxolane-4,5-dimethanol) (22) ligands [53-55]. In the first study on normal electron-demand 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions between nitrones and alkenes, which appeared in 1994, the catalytic reaction of a series of chiral TiCl2-TADDOLates on the reaction of nitrones 1 with al-kenoyloxazolidinones 19 was developed (Scheme 6.18) [56]. These substrates have turned out be the model system of choice for most studies on metal-catalyzed normal electron-demand 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of nitrones as it will appear from this chapter. When 10 mol% of the catalyst 23a was applied in the reaction depicted in Scheme 6.18 the reaction proceeded to give a yield of up to 94% ee after 20 h. The reaction led primarily to exo-21 and in the best case an endo/ exo ratio of 10 90 was obtained. The chiral information of the catalyst was transferred with a fair efficiency to the substrates as up to 60% ee of one of the isomers of exo3 was obtained [56]. 

Alkenes are reduced by addition of H2 in the presence of a catalyst such as platinum or palladium to yield alkanes, a process called catalytic hydrogenation. Alkenes are also oxidized by reaction with a peroxyacid to give epoxides, which can be converted into lTans-l,2-diols by acid-catalyzed epoxide hydrolysis. The corresponding cis-l,2-diols can be made directly from alkenes by hydroxylation with 0s04. Alkenes can also be cleaved to produce carbonyl compounds by reaction with ozone, followed by reduction with zinc metal. 

Negishi previously reported that a wide variety of Lewis-acidic compounds catalyzed hydrozirconation of alkenes such as 1-decene 108 with /-BuZrCp2Cl.126 It was found that the reaction of 1-decene with 1.1 molar equiv. of TIB A, in the presence of 2-5 mol% of chlorine-containing late transition metals, led to the formation of 1-iododecane 110 after treatment of the product with iodine (Table 9). 

Due to the increased reactivity of the reaction in the presence of a Lewis acid, the reaction scope was extended to singly activated alkenes. Previous results had shown either no reaction or extremely poor yields. However, under the Lewis acid catalyzed conditions, acrylonitrile furnished a 1 1, endo/exo mixture of products. The addition of the catalyst gave unexpected regiochemistry in the reaction, which is analogous with results described in Grigg s metal catalyzed reactions. These observations in the reversal of regio- and stereocontrol of the reactions were rationalized by a reversal of the dominant, interacting frontier orbitals to a LUMO dipole-HOMO dipolarophile combination due to the ylide-catalyst complex. This complex resulted in a further withdrawal of electrons from the azomethine ylide. 

The intramolecular Alder-ene reaction (enyne cydoisomerization reaction) with alkynes as the enophiles has found wide application compared with diene systems. The reason may be the ready chemo-differentiation between alkene and alkyne functionality and the more reactive alkyne moiety. Furthermore, the diene nature of the products will promote further applications such as Diels-Alder reactions in organic synthesis. Over the past two decades the transition metal-catalyzed Alder-ene cycloisomerization of l,n-enynes (typically n= 6, 7) has emerged as a very powerful method for constructing complicated carbo- or heterocydic frameworks. The transition metals for this transformation indude Pd, Pt, Co, Ru, Ni-Cr, and Rh. Lewis acid-promoted cydoisomerization of activated enynes has also been reported [11],... 

An alternate route to formation of alkyl monolayers is via Lewis acid catalyzed reactions of alkenes with the hydrogen terminated surface. In this approach, a catalyst such as ethyl aluminum dichloride is used to mediate the hydrosilylation reaction of an alkene (or alkyne), resulting in the same type of product as in the case of the photochemical or thermal reactions. This type of reaction is well known based on molecular organosilane chemistry and has also been used successfully to alkylate porous silicon [31]. Although this route has been shown to work on H/Si(lll), the resulting monolayers are found to have lower coverages than those achieved using the photochemical or thermal approach [29], Another concern with this approach is the possibility of trace metal residues from the catalyst that could adversely affect the electronic properties of these surfaces (even when present at levels below the detection limit of most common surface analysis techniques). 

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.

The pyrolytic decomposition of the sodium salts of various fluorinated carboxylic acids to give isomeric unsaturated compounds has also been reported. The products were identified as alkenes with the C = C bond inside the carbon chain, mainly alk-2-enes. This isomerization may be catalyzed by the coal-like products formed during the pyrolytic decarboxylation of the salts, but the metal fluoride formed in the reaction may also be responsible for the isomerization. When potassium perfluoro(5-chloropentanoate) is heated in a rocking autoclave at 300 C for 2 hours, perfluorobut-2-ene (2b) is isolated in 82% yield.This is only possible by migration of the double bond away from the terminal position after carbon dioxide elimination and halogen exchange to form potassium chloride. ... 

Hydrocarboxylation reactions generally do not have very high regioselectivities when carried out with C4 or higher alkenes, due to alkene isomerization side reactions catalyzed by both acid and metal. Thus, many of the reactions done industrially involve substrates such as acetylene and ethylene where isomerization side reactions will not present any problems. 

---