Alkyl radicals, conjugate addition

The photoaddition of alkanes onto electron-poor alkynes (e.g., propiolate or acetilendicarboxylate esters) can be accomplished by a radical conjugate addition reaction [7]. Radicals have been generated either via hydrogen abstraction from cycloalkanes or via electron transfer from 2-alkyl-2-phenyl-l,3-dioxolanes. In the first case, the irradiation was pursued on an alkane solution of an aromatic ketone (used as the photomediator) and the alkyne. Under these conditions, methyl propiolate was alkylated upon irradiation in the presence of 4-trifluoromethylacetophenone to form acrylate 48 in 97% yield (E/Z= 1.3 1 Scheme 3.31) [78]. 

Enantioselective radical conjugate addition of an alkyl group to 587 was promoted by alkyltin hydride in the presence of chiral bis-isoxazoline derivatives <2002JA984>. 

The thermodynamic conditions governing this partitioning have been defined, and acetals and further radical precursors have been extensively applied for conjugate alkylation. Photosensitized conjugate addition is particularly effective when using aromatic esters in the place of nitriles as the... 

One of the first synthetic applications of organoboranes in radical chemistry is the conjugate addition to enones (Scheme 23, Eq. 23a) and enals reported by Brown [58-61]. Addition to -substituted enones and enals are not spontaneous and initiation with the oxygen [62], diacetyl peroxide [63], or under irradiation [63] is necessary (Eq. 23b). A serious drawback of this strategy is that only one of the three alkyl groups is efficiently transferred, so the method is restricted to trialkylboranes derived from the hydroboration of easily available and cheap alkenes. To overcome this limitation B-alkylboracyclanes have been used but this approach was not successful for the generation of tertiary alkyl radicals [64,65]. 

Brown proposed a mechanism where the enolate radical resulting from the radical addition reacts with the trialkylborane to give a boron enolate and a new alkyl radical that can propagate the chain (Scheme 24) [61]. The formation of the intermediate boron enolate was confirmed by H NMR spectroscopy [66,67]. The role of water present in the system is to hydrolyze the boron enolate and to prevent its degradation by undesired free-radical processes. This hydrolysis step is essential when alkynones [68] and acrylonitrile [58] are used as radical traps since the resulting allenes or keteneimines respectively, react readily with radical species. Maillard and Walton have shown by nB NMR, ll NMR und IR spectroscopy, that tri-ethylborane does complex methyl vinyl ketone, acrolein and 3-methylbut-3-en-2-one. They proposed that the reaction of triethylborane with these traps involves complexation of the trap by the Lewis acidic borane prior to conjugate addition [69]. 

Toru has investigated the stereoselectivity of the conjugate addition of trialkylboranes to 2-arylsulfinylcyclopentenones. Excellent stereocontrol is achieved with different alkyl radicals (Scheme 27) [73-76]. In the acyclic series, the lack of diastereoselectivity in the addition step and a competitive Pummerer rearrangement have limited the synthetic potential of this reaction [77]. 

Scheme 29 Diethylboranes mediated conjugate addition of secondary alkyl radicals...

The addition of B-alkylcatecholboranes to quinones has recently been investigated [85]. Good yield of the expected conjugate addition product are obtained with primary and most secondary radicals (Scheme 34, Eq. 34a). However, hindered secondary radicals and tertiary alkyl radicals afford an unexpected product resulting from a radical addition to the oxygen atom of the quinone (Eq. 34b). 

In a preliminary study, in situ generated B-alkylcatecholboranes were allowed to react with PTOC-OMe under irradiation with a standard 150 W lamp. The S-pyridyl products coming from primary, secondary and tertiary alkyl radicals were isolated in moderate to good yields [88]. Based on these initial results, a procedure for conjugate addition to various activated alkenes was developed. A one-pot procedure involving hydroboration of an alkene with catecholborane followed by irradiation in the presence of five equivalents of an activated alkene and three equivalents of the chain transfer reagent PTOC-OMe was developed (Scheme 36) [88]. 

Scheme 37 Radical chain mechanism for the conjugate addition of B-alkylcatecholboranes to activated olefins (R = alkyl group EWG = electron withdrawing group R O =Me0C(0)0, MeO )...

Radical chemistry has seen tremendous progress in the past two decades and can now be considered as an eminent sub discipline in synthetic organic chemistry [1-6]. Diastereoselective radical chemistry is well established and many examples of enantioselective radical reactions have appeared in the recent literature. For reviews on diastereoselective radical chemistry see [7-11] for reviews on enantioselective radical chemistry see [12-16] and for reviews on conjugate additions, see [17,18]. This review will detail different ways to introduce asymmetry during a radical reaction. These transformations can be broadly classified into atom transfer reactions, reductive alkylations, fragmentations, addition and trapping experiments, and electron transfer reactions. 

Vitamin B12 reacts with alkyl halides to form a cobalt (III) alkyl intermediate. Irradiation with visible light leads to the expulsion of a carbon-centered radical and a cobalt (II) species. The latter is easily reduced at —0.8 V to reconvert it to a cobalt (I) intermediate that reenters the catalytic cycle by reacting with a second molecule of the halide. The radical is capable of undergoing a number of interesting transformations, including conjugate addition to a Michael acceptor. The example illustrated in Scheme 9 provided a straightforward route to ester... 

Kinetic experiments have been performed on a copper-catalyzed substitution reaction of an alkyl halide, and the reaction rate was found to be first order in the copper salt, the halide, and the Grignard reagent [121]. This was not the case for a silver-catalyzed substitution reaction with a primary bromide, in which the reaction was found to be zero order in Grignard reagents [122]. A radical mechanism might be operative in the case of the silver-catalyzed reaction, whereas a nucleophilic substitution mechanism is suggested in the copper-catalyzed reaction [122]. The same behavior was also observed in the stoichiometric conjugate addition (Sect. 10.2.1) [30]. 

While a large number of studies have been reported for conjugate addition and Sn2 alkylation reactions, the mechanisms of many important organocopper-promoted reactions have not been discussed. These include substitution on sp carbons, acylation with acyl halides [168], additions to carbonyl compounds, oxidative couplings [169], nucleophilic opening of electrophilic cyclopropanes [170], and the Kocienski reaction [171]. The chemistry of organocopper(II) species has rarely been studied experimentally [172-174], nor theoretically, save for some trapping experiments on the reaction of alkyl radicals with Cu(I) species in aqueous solution [175]. 

The same group2 now finds that a zinc/copper couple prepared by sonication of Zn and Cul in ethanol/H20 (9 1) permits conjugate addition of alkyl halides to enones and enals. The order of reactivity is RI > RBr and tert > sec primary. THF/H20 or Py/HzO or even pure water can be used as solvent. This reaction can hardly involve a classical organometallic reagent, but probably involves an alkyl radical. 

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