Alkylation, enolate ions chirality

The mechanism of these reactions is usually Sn2 with inversion taking place at a chiral RX, though there is strong evidence that an SET mechanism is involved in certain cases, ° especially where the nucleophile is an a-nitro carbanion and/or the substrate contains a nitro or cyano group. Tertiary alkyl groups can be introduced by an SnI mechanism if the ZCH2Z compound (not the enolate ion) is treated with a tertiary carbocation generated in situ from an alcohol or alkyl halide and BF3 or AlCla, or with a tertiary alkyl perchlorate. ... 

Although the conversion of an aldehyde or a ketone to its enol tautomer is not generally a preparative procedure, the reactions do have their preparative aspects. If a full equivalent of base per equivalent of ketone is used, the enolate ion (18) is formed and can be isolated (see, e.g., the alkylation reaction in 10-68). When enol ethers or esters are hydrolyzed, the enols initially formed immediately tautomerize to the aldehydes or ketones. In addition, the overall processes (forward plus reverse reactions) are often used for equilibration purposes. When an optically active compound in which the chirality is due to an stereogenic carbon a to a carbonyl group (as in 19) is treated with acid or base, racemization results. 

A discussion of approaches to the stereoselective synthesis of 3-(dichlorovinyl)-2,2-dirrethylcyclapraparie carboxylic acid through intramolecular alkylation of an enolate ion is presented. Principles for achieving good control of the relative stereochemistry about the cyclopropane ring will be described. The control of the absolute stereochemistry on the ring was accomplished through the use of a chiral enolate. 

Evans and Takacs23 demonstrated a diastereoselective alkylation based on metal ion chelation of a lithium enolate derived from a prolinol-type chiral auxiliary. This method can provide effective syntheses of a-substituted carbox-... 

Alkylation Alkylation of the phenylindanone 31 with catalyst 3a by the Merck group demonstrates the reward that can accompany a careful and systematic study of a particular phase-transfer reaction (Scheme 10.3) [5d,5f,9,36], The numerous reaction variables were optimized and the kinetics and mechanism of the reaction were studied in detail. It has been proposed that the chiral induction step involves an ion-pair in which the enolate anion fits on top of the catalyst and is positioned by electrostatic and hydrogen-bonding effects as well as 71—71 stacking interactions between the aromatic rings in the catalyst and the enolate. The electrophile then preferentially approaches the ion-pair from the top (front) face, because the catalyst effectively shields the bottom-face approach. A crystal structure of the catalyst as well as calculations of the catalyst-enolate complex support this interpretation [9a,91]. Alkylations of related active methine compounds, such as 33 to 34 (Scheme 10.3), have also appeared [10,11]. 

The alkylation of ( )-spirolactones (34a) and (34b) with higher diastereoface selectivity has been modelled by geometry-optimized ab initio 4-31G calculations which suggest that approach of the electrophile occurs at an angle of ca 80° to the plane of the enolate and with some displacement away from the oxygen linked to the metal ion.41 Asymmetric a-methylation of phenylalanine derivatives has been achieved with 82% ee and retention of configuration in the absence of any external chiral source.42... 

Among several chiral cyclic and acyclic diamines, (R,R)-cyclohexane-l,2-diamine-derived salen ligand (which can adopt the gauche conformation) was most effective in providing high enantioselectivity [38]. Further, the introduction of substituents at the 3,4, 5 and 6 positions on the aromatic ring of catalyst 39c was not advantageous, and resulted in low enantioselectivity [32,37,39]. The metal ions from first-row transition metals - particularly copper(II) and cobalt(II) - that could form square-planar complexes, produced catalytically active complexes for the asymmetric alkylation of amino ester enolates [38]. 

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