Alkyl halides carboxylic acid enolates

Section 21 7 The malonic ester synthesis is related to the acetoacetic ester synthesis Alkyl halides (RX) are converted to carboxylic acids of the type RCH2COOH by reaction with the enolate ion derived from diethyl mal onate followed by saponification and decarboxylation... 

Alpha hydrogen atoms of carbonyl compounds are weakly acidic and can be removed by strong bases, such as lithium diisopropylamide (LDA), to yield nucleophilic enolate ions. The most important reaction of enolate ions is their Sn2 alkylation with alkyl halides. The malonic ester synthesis converts an alkyl halide into a carboxylic acid with the addition of two carbon atoms. Similarly, the acetoacetic ester synthesis converts an alkyl halide into a methyl ketone. In addition, many carbonyl compounds, including ketones, esters, and nitriles, can be directly alkylated by treatment with LDA and an alkyl halide. 

Carboxylic acids can be alkylated in the a position by conversion of their salts to dianions [which actually have the enolate structures RCH=C(0")2 ] by treatment with a strong base such as LDA. The use of Li as the counterion is important, because it increases the solubility of the dianionic salt. The reaction has been applied to primary alkyl, allylic, and benzylic halides, and to carboxylic acids of the form RCH2COOH and RR"CHCOOH. This method, which is an example of the alkylation of a dianion at its more nucleophilic position (see p. 458),... 

Racemic fra .s-A--benzyl-2.5-bis-(ethoxycarbonyl)pyrrolidine has been resolved via its dicarboxylic acid, followed by subsequent transformation to offer (2R,5R)-21 or (25,5S -21. The absolute configuration of the alkylated carboxylic acids indicates that the approach of alkyl halides is directed to one of the diastereotopic faces of the enolate thus formed. In the following case, the approached face is the 57-face of the (Z)-enolate. By employing the chiral auxiliary (2R,5R)-21 or its enantiomer (25.55)-21. the (/ )- or (S)-form of carboxylic acids can be obtained with considerably high enantioselectivity (Table 2-4). 

The highly nucleophilic (S)-prolinol amide enolate (164) (M = Li) was alkylated employing a range of alkyl halides. The carboxylic acids (167) were obtained in chemical yields of 78-96% and outstanding optical yields 177). 

Seebach and Naef1961 generated chiral enolates with asymmetric induction from a-heterosubstituted carboxylic acids. Reactions of these enolates with alkyl halides were found to be highly diastereoselective. Thus, the overall enantioselective a-alkyla-tion of chiral, non-racemic a-heterosubstituted carboxylic acids was realized. No external chiral auxiliary was necessary in order to produce the a-alkylated target molecules. Thus, (S)-proline was refluxed in a pentane solution of pivalaldehyde in the presence of an acid catalyst, with azeotropic removal of water. (197) was isolated as a single diastereomer by distillation. The enolate generated from (197) was allylated and produced (198) with ad.s. value >98 %. The substitution (197) ->(198) probably takes place with retention of configuration 196>. 

Hydrolysis of enol esters 0-83 Reduction of acyl halides 0-84 Reduction of carboxylic acids, esters, or anhydrides 0-85 Reduction of amides 0-95 Alkylation and hydrolysis of imines, alkylation of aldehydes 0-97 Alkylation and hydrolysis of dithi-anes... 

The anions of esters such as ethyl 3-oxobutanoate and diethyl propanedioate can be alkylated with alkyl halides. These reactions are important for the synthesis of carboxylic acids and ketones and are similar in character to the alkylation of ketones discussed previously (Section 17-4A). The ester is converted by a strong base to the enolate anion, Equation 18-18, which then is alkylated in an SN2 reaction with the alkyl halide, Equation 18-19. Usually, C-alkylation predominates ... 

Asymmetric aikyiation of imide etiolates.1 The sodium enolates of 3 and 7 are alkylated with marked but opposite diastereoselectivity by alkyl halides. The selectivity is improved by an increase in the size of the electrophile, with methylation being the least stereoselective process. The asymmetric induction results from formation of (Z)-enolates (chelation) with the diastereoselectivity determined by the chirality of the C4-substituent on the oxazolidone ring (equations I and II). The products can be hydrolyzed to the free carboxylic acids or reduced by LiAlH4 to the corresponding primary alcohols and the unreduced oxazolidone (1 or 2). 

Besides the glycinate ester derivatives described above, other types of enolate-forming compounds have proved to be useful substrates for enantioselective alkylation reactions in the presence of cinchona alkaloids as chiral PTC catalysts. The Corey group reported the alkylation of enolizable carboxylic acid esters of type 57 in the presence of 25 as organocatalyst [69]. The alkylations furnished the desired a-substituted carboxylate 58 in yields of up to 83% and enantioselectivity up to 98% ee (Scheme 3.23). It should be added that high enantioselectivity in the range 94-98% ee was obtained with a broad variety of alkyl halides as alkylation agents. The product 58c is a versatile intermediate in the synthesis of an optically active tetra-hydropyran. 

Malonic esters are more acidic than simple esters, so that alkylations can be carried out via enolate formation promoted by relatively mild bases such as sodium alkoxide, and subsequent alkylation with halides. An excess of ester must be used to prevent dialkylated products. Carboxylic acids may optionally be obtained after hydrolysis and decarboxylation. 

The extra ester group is not normally added to the preformed ketone as ethyl acetoacetate 41 is available and the diester is available diethyl malonate 59. If it is necessary to make the 1,3-dicarbonyl compound, this can be done by methods described in chapters 19 and 20. The carboxylic acid 56 can be disconnected at the branchpoint to an alkyl halide and the synthon 58 that could be realised as the anion of diethyl malonate 59 or the lithium enolate of ethyl acetate. 

The diastereoselective alkylation of /V-acyloxazolidinones enolates was examined first. Lithium enolates of 107 were reacted with a variety of alkyl halides, and alkylation products were formed with excellent diastereoselectivities (94-99% de). Hydrolysis gave optically pure carboxylic acids, and the chiral auxiliary was recovered for reuse almost quantitatively.105-106 Highly diastereoselective bromination was also achieved by reaction of the boron enolate of 107 with /V-bromosuccinimide (NBS) (98% de). Optically pure amino acids could be accessed by simple synthetic transformations (Scheme 24.26).106... 

This means that it can be used to build up heavily branched esters and carboxylic acids—the sort that are hard to make by alkylation because of the problems of hindered enolates and unreactive secondary alkyl halides. Heavily substituted acids, where CO2H is attached to a tertiary carbon atom, would be hard to make by any other method. And the Favorskii rearrangement is a key step in this synthesis of the powerful painkiller Pethidine. 

Various substitutions of hydrogen at positions 3 and 4 in -lactams can be performed with electrophilic reagents. The 3-position is activated by the carbonyl group. Alkylation at the 3-position is readily executed via the enolate with alkyl halides, aldehydes, ketones, carbon dioxide, etc. A carboxyl group at C(4) as in 79 does not interfere, the dilithium salt being alkylated at C(3) with excellent stereocontrol, giving the /ra j-disubstituted lactams 80. Hydrolysis leads to -alkyl aspartic acids 81. 

One-carbon homologation. The products 3) obtained by reaction of 2 with alkyl halides can be converted under mild conditions lo one-carbon homologated aldehydes, carboxylic acids, or enol methyl ethers. 

Reactions of the Enolate of (1) with Electrophiles. Addition of the dioxolanones (1) to solutions of Lithium Diiso-propylamide or Lithium Hexamethyldisilazide in THF at dry-ice temperature generates the corresponding enolates which react with alkyl halides, - carbonyl compounds, and nitroalkenes almost exclusively from the face remote from the t-Bu group to give products of type (2). These can be hydrolyzed to simple ot-hydroxy-ot-methyl carboxylic acids or further elaborated. Four examples are shown in (3)-(6) in which the part of the molecule originating from lactic acid is indicated in bold. 

Mono- and dialkylations of malonic acid esters generally are performed in an alcoholic solution of a metal alkoxide. Alkylation of a monoalkylated malonic ester requires the presence of another equivalent of alkoxide and the appropriate alkyl halide. The alkylation works well with RCH2X (X=l, Br, OTs), PhCH2X (X=C1, Br) and even with unhindered sec alkyl bromides." Subsequent hydrolysis of the diester under acidic or basic conditions followed by heat-induced decarboxylation yields the a-alkylated carboxylic acid. Thus, dialkyl malonates are the synthetic equivalents (SE) of acetate enolate anions and can be used to obtain mono- or disubstituted carboxylic acids. 

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