Alkyl halides dienolates

Looking back on the history of ketone dianion chemistry, one soon notices that dianion species, derived from / -keto esters, have been in continuous steady use in organic synthesis3,4, as shown in Scheme 2. Thus, ethyl acetoacetate can be converted to the corresponding ketone o a -chainon via consecutive proton abstraction reactions. The resulting dienolate anion reacts with a variety of alkyl halides to give products, resulting from exclusive attack at the terminal enolate anions. 

The reduction of benzoic acids affords the dienolate (77) which may be alkylated in situ by a variety of electrophiles to afford 1-substituted derivatives. Clearly, the addition of alcohol must be avoided or limited to small quantities. It may also be necessary to remove the ammonia before adding the electrophile. The vast majority of applications have been based on reactions with alkyl halides to form (78), but additions of (77) to formaldehyde, epoxides and a,p-unsaturated esters to form the range of adducts (79) to (81) have also been reported (Scheme 14). 

The spiro-dihydrofuran (61) is converted into the cyclobutane derivative (62) under the influence of trifluoroacetic acid. The lithium dienolate (64), derived from the furanone (63), yields solely y-alkylated products on treatment with alkyl halides. Thermolysis of the t-butylperoxybutenolide (65) produces about equal amounts of the hydroxy-furanone (67) and the indenone (68), presumably via the oxide radical (66). Attack of iodide ion on the salt (69) results in the formation of methyl iodide, butanolide, and (surprisingly) methyl 4-iodobutanoate. A description of a study of the photochemical rearrangement of the tetrahydrofurans (70) to the bicyclic oxetans (71) has been presented. ... 

Copper dienolates of a,/3-unsaturated acids, prepared by Copper(I) Iodide transmetalation, can be selectively y-alkylated with allylic halides the use of nonallylic electrophiles leads mainly to a-alkylation (eq 20). Copper enolates of a,fi-unsaturated esters and amides show similar behavior. 

A further example of the remarkable effect on the regiospecificity of alkylation caused by changing a carbanion counterion from lithium to copper has been reported in the elaboration of isoprenoid 2,6-dienoic acids from dienolates of a/3-unsaturated acids, and allyl halides. 

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