Alkylation of carbon nucleophiles

The previous sections dealt with reactions in which the new carbon-carbon bond is formed by addition of the nucleophile to a carbonyl group. Another important method for alkylation of carbon nucleophiles involves addition to an electrophilic multiple bond. The electrophilic reaction partner is typically an a,(3-unsaturated ketone, aldehyde, or ester, but other electron-withdrawing substituents such as nitro, cyano, or sulfonyl also activate carbon-carbon double and triple bonds to nucleophilic attack. The reaction is called conjugate addition or the Michael reaction. 

Chapter 1 deals with alkylation of carbon nucleophiles by alkyl halides and tosylates. We discuss the major factors affecting stereoselectivity in both cyclic and acyclic compounds and consider intramolecular alkylation and the use of chiral auxiliaries. 

SECTION 1.10. ALKYLATION OF CARBON NUCLEOPHILES BY CONJUGATE ADDITION... 

Transition-metal-mediated C-O bond cleavage reactions are interesting in view of environmentally benign halogen-free chemical processes [59]. Zerovalent ruthenium complexes are also active toward C-O bond-deavage reactions, and a number of catalytic processes have been developed in this respect. For example, Ru(l,5-COD)(l,3,5-COT) catalyzes allylic alkylation of carbon nucleophiles with allylic carbonates in basic solvent (Scheme 14.24) [60]. 

The alkylation of carbon nucleophiles by SN2-type processes is an important transformation in the synthesis of organic compounds. The generation and alkylation of such nucleophiles are described in this chapter. Alkylation and acylation of nucleophilic carbon species by other mechanisms are discussed in Chapter 2. 

Alkylation of Carbon Nucleophiles by Conjugate Addition General References... 

Since allylation with allylic carbonates proceeds under mild neutral conditions, neutral allylation has a wide application to alkylation of labile compounds which are sensitive to acids or bases. As a typical example, successful C-allylation of the rather sensitive molecule of ascorbic acid (225) to give 226 is possible only with allyl carbonate[l 37]. Similarly, Meldrum s acid is allylated smoothly[138]. Pd-catalyzed reaction of carbon nucleophiles with isopropyl 2-methylene-3,5-dioxahexylcarbomite (227)[I39] followed by hydrolysis is a good method for acetonylation of carbon nucleophiles. 

Reactions of carbon nucleophiles with organohalogen compounds have great diversity for the construction of now carbon-carbon bonds. The intriguing synthon, ethoxyethynylsodium, is generated and alkylated in 1-ETHOXY-1-BUTANE. Following an alkylation of propynylsodium, a vinyl halide is generated in a stereoselective manner... 

Additions of carbon nucleophiles to vinylepoxides are well documented and can be accomplished by several different techniques. Palladium-catalyzed allylic alkylation of these substrates with soft carbon nucleophiles (pKa 10-20) proceeds under neutral conditions and with excellent regioselectivities [103, 104]. The sul-fone 51, for example, was cyclized through the use of catalytic amounts of Pd(PPh3)4 and bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane (dppe) under high-dilution conditions to give macrocycle 52, an intermediate in a total synthesis of the antitumor agent roseophilin, in excellent yield (Scheme 9.26) [115, 116]. 

A single reaction has been described in which a palladium-catalyzed reaction was employed to form an alkyne [45], Thus, attempted alkylation of carbonate 145 with dimethyl malonate in the presence of Pd(PPh3)4 gave a mixture of enyne 87 and the alkylation product 86 in a 15 1 ratio (Scheme 14.37). Methoxide caused an elimination in (jT-allyl)palladium intermediate 146, which is apparently faster under these conditions than a reaction with the nucleophile (cf. Eq. 14.9). The synthetic importance of this process seems to be limited. 

The range of carbon nucleophiles that have been successfully employed for 1,4-addition to -a,/i-unsaturated iron-acyl complexes is limited to simple alkyl- and aryllithium species. Grignard reagents and the 1,3-propanedioate anion are reported to fail to react with. E-complexes36. The effect of varying the phosphane ligand has been examined little effect upon... 

The same transition metal systems which activate alkenes, alkadienes and alkynes to undergo nucleophilic attack by heteroatom nucleophiles also promote the reaction of carbon nucleophiles with these unsaturated compounds, and most of the chemistry in Scheme 1 in Section 3.1.2 of this volume is also applicable in these systems. However two additional problems which seriously limit the synthetic utility of these reactions are encountered with carbon nucleophiles. Most carbanions arc strong reducing agents, while many electrophilic metals such as palladium(II) are readily reduced. Thus, oxidative coupling of the carbanion, with concomitant reduction of the metal, is often encountered when carbon nucleophiles arc studied. In addition, catalytic cycles invariably require reoxidation of the metal used to activate the alkene [usually palladium(II)]. Since carbanions are more readily oxidized than are the metals used, catalysis of alkene, diene and alkyne alkylation has rarely been achieved. Thus, virtually all of the reactions discussed below require stoichiometric quantities of the transition metal, and are practical only when the ease of the transformation or the value of the product overcomes the inherent cost of using large amounts of often expensive transition metals. 

The addition of carbon nucleophiles to complex (27), followed by demetallation, is equivalent to the y-alkylation of cyclohexenone. This overall transformation can also be accomplished directly via addition of electrophiles to dienolsilanes, but it becomes nontrivial for cases where the cyclohexenone C-4 position is already substituted.37 On the other hand, 1 -substituted cyclohexadienyliron complexes, such as (30), react very cleanly with certain carbon nucleophiles, at the substituted dienyl terminus. This provides useful methodology for the construction of 4,4-disubstituted cyclohexenones, and has been employed in a variety of natural product syntheses. 

With tetrahexylammonium as the cation of choice and 5 as ligand, the established conditions for the alkylation with carbon nucleophiles has been successfully applied to asymmetric introduction of heteroatoms such as nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur (Eq. 8E.7), As shown in Table 8E.8, excellent enantioselectivities are observed independent of the counterion of the heteroatom nucleophiles and the ring size. 

Although an a-CF3 group is known to retard. S n2 reactions of carbon nucleophiles with alkyl sulfonates, it has now been found that y-trifluoromethylated allylic acetals undergo 5k2 -type reactions with Grignard reagents in presence of catalytic amounts of CuCN and TMS-C1 without formation of 5N2 products.110 This provides an alternative means of introducing a carbon nucleophile adjacent to a CF3 group. 

In chapter 10 we compared C-C disconnections with related two-group C-X disconnections, mainly at the alcohol oxidation level. In this chapter we deal more fully with carbonyl compounds, chiefly aldehydes and ketones, by two related disconnections. We start by comparing the acylation of heteroatoms by acid derivatives such as esters (a 1,1-diX disconnection 1 that can also be described as a one-group C-X disconnection) with the acylation of carbon nucleophiles and move on to compare the 1,2-diX disconnection 3 with the alkylation of enolates 6. Here we have reversed the polarity. We mention regioselectivity—a theme we shall develop in chapter 14. 

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