Alkyl derivatives zinc reagents

With the development of the cross coupling methodology, many 6-C-substituted purines have been prepared in the past decade. Thus, 6 halopurine derivatives react with arylmagnesium halides,25 alkyl(aryl)zinc or tin reagents,26 trialkylaluminum,27 or alkylcuprates28 to give the 6-alkylpurine derivatives. Also a reverse approach based on the reaction of purine-6-zinc iodide with aryl or vinyl halides has recently been described.29 For the synthesis of 6-arylpurines, an alternative approach makes use of radical photochemical reactions of adenine derivatives with aromatic compounds,30 but this method is very unselective and for substituted benzenes, mixtures of ortho-, meta-, and para substituted derivatives were obtained. 

In the presence of a Lewis acid, alkyl zinc halides react with aromatic aldehydes to give secondary alcohols. However, alkyl zinc reagents are less reactive than their allyl derivatives and reaction with aliphatic aldehydes is very sluggish. A solution to this is the use (in the presence of aLewis acid) of either the dialkyl zinc reagent or the mixed copper-zinc species RCu(CN)ZnX, formed by transmetaUation of the alkyl... 

Ishizaki and Hoshino prepared optically active secondary alkynyl alcohols (up to 95% e.e.) by the catalytic asymmetric addition of alkyl zinc reagents to both aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes. The chiral ligands studied were based on the pyridine scaffold. Of the three aryl substitutions studied, the a-napthyl derivative was found to be superior (Scheme 21.10). Mechanistically, it was proposed that (S)-l would react with dialkynyl zinc alkoxide A and ethyl zinc alkoxide B. Coordination of additional di-alkynyl zinc and alkynylethyl zinc with these alkoxides (A, B) would give C and D, respectively (Scheme 21.11). More bulky alkoxide (C) would have severe steric interactions with the alkynyl group and pyridine moiety, which might cause undesired conformational changes of the l-zinc complexes. Consequently, the enatioselectivity would be decreased. 

Use of strongly anionic nucleophiles such as alkylmagnesium halides and lithium alkyls leads to reductive dimerization or displacement of the olefin. It is quite possible however that alkylation of olefin-iron cations (IX) would be feasible with alkyl derivatives of zinc, cadmium, or tin reagents. Alkylation of dienyliron cations with dialkylzinc and dialkylcadmium reagents has recently been demonstrated (Section III,A,4). Alkylation of olefin-iron cations can be achieved under mild conditions with cr-bonded allyliron compounds [Eqs. (9) and (10), (Rosan et ai, 1973)]. 

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