Alkylations lithium hexamethyldisilazide

C-Alkylations of l,4-dihydro-27/-pyrazino[2,l-A]quinazoline-3,6-diones at positions C-l and CM were studied in detail. Compounds of type 57 could be alkylated diastereoselectively at C-l, owing to the geometry of the piperazine ring, which is locked in a flat boat conformation with the R4 or R1 substituent in a pseudoaxial position to avoid steric interaction with the nearly coplanar C(6)-carbonyl group. Alkylation of 57 (R2 = Me, Bn, R4 = Me) in the presence of lithium hexamethyldisilazide (LHMDS) with benzyl and allyl halides resulted, under kinetic control, in the 1,4-trans-diastereomer 59 as the major product, with retention of the stereocenter at CM (Scheme 5). 

The cyclic cobalt-acyl complex 1 undergoes a-proton abstraction from the least-hindered face opposite the phosphane ligand upon treatment with lithium hexamethyldisilazide at 0 °C to generate the chiral enolate species 283. Treatment of 2 with primary iodoalkanes diastereoselec-tively produces the alkylated cobaltocycles 3 also via attack of the reagent on the face opposite the bulky phosphane. 

Methyl ethers are usually prepared by some variant of the Williamson ether synthesis in which an alcohol reacts with either iodomethane, dimethyl sulfate, or methyl triflate (HAZARD) in the presence of a suitable base. A word of caution dimethyl sulfate and methyl triflate, tike all powerful alkylating agents, are potentially carcinogenic and therefore should only be handled in a well-ventilated fume hood. For the 0-methylation of phenols (pKa 10) a comparatively weak base such as potassium carbonate in conjunction with dimethyl sulfate is sufficient,193 whereas simple aliphatic alcohols require stronger bases such as sodium hydride [Scheme 4.111]22 or lithium hexamethyldisilazide [Scheme 4.112].203 The latter transformation is notable for the fact that 0-methyiation was accomplished without competing elimination. 

The term amidolithium is the unambiguous name for the compounds RR NLi (R, R = alkyl, aryl, silyl, etc.) more often termed lithium amides. They derive their importance from the near-ubiquity of their bulkier members lithium diisopropy-lamide (LDA), lithium tetramethylpiperidide (LTMP), and lithium hexamethyldisilazide (LHMDS) in organic synthesis. Using such powerful but nonnucleophilic bases, many useful reactions may be performed, notably the enolization of ketones and esters, which can proceed both regio- and stereoselectively under kinetic control at low temperatures. ... 

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. 

Deprotonation of alkylnitriles with LDA or lithium hexamethyldisilazide (LHMDS" ) and treatment of the resultant ambident a-nitrile anions with 1° and 2°-alkyl halides affords C-alkylated products in good yield. However, the a-anions of highly substituted nitriles may undergo N-alkylation to give amides on aqueous workup. 

What is needed for the alkylation is rapid conversion of the ester into a reasonably stable enolate, so rapid in fact that there is no unenolised ester left. In other words the rate of proton removal must be faster than the rate of combination of enolate and ester. These conditions are met when lithium enolates are made from esters with lithium amide bases at low temperature, often 78 °C. Hindered bases must be used as otherwise nucleophilic displacement will occur at the ester carbonyl group to give an amide. Popular bases are LDA (Lithium Di-isopropyl Amide, 66), lithium hexamethyldisilazide 67, and lithium tetramethylpiperidide 68, the most hindered of all. These bases are conveniently prepared from the amine, e.g. 65 for LDA, and BuLi in dry THF solution. 

This reaction can sometimes be useful in synthesis. In the Honda et al. formal synthesis of securinine,2h N-benzylamino-ketone (97) was treated with lithium hexamethyldisilazide and then sorbic anhydride. This gave dienyl ester 98 by O-alkylation of the initially formed enolate anion. When the nitrogen protecting group was... 

Exposure of 877 to lithium hexamethyldisilazide ( — 78° 0 °C) results in intramolecular alkylation of the ester enolate to afford 878. Reduction of the ester to an alcohol and oxidation of sulfur followed by elimination of the resulting sulfoxide introduces the unsaturation leading to 869. This is then converted to ( H- )-heliotridine (850) by reduction of the carbonyl group. 

The sites of deprotonation of a series of A -benzyl lactams have been determined. For five- and six-membered lactams, kinetic deprotonation occurred exclusively a to the carbonyl, while seven-and eight-membered lactams gave exclusively the products arising from deprotonation at the benzylic position. The alkylation of the anion derived from (121), however, gave an approximately 3 1 ratio of (122) to (123) (R = Bu", allyl and Bn) (Equation (5)) <87JA4405>. By contrast, the deprotonation of A -(BOC)caprylolactam with lithium hexamethyldisilazide in THF at — 78°C gave the expected enolate, which could be alkylated with iodomethane (81% yield) or phenylselenyl chloride (65% yield) <90SL63>. 

With ketone 271 in hand, focus turned to construction of the furoindole scaffold via a Fischer indolization. The lithium enolate of ketone 271 was generated in situ using lithium hexamethyldisilazide in a mixture of l,3-dimethyl-3,4,5,6-tetrahydro-2(lH)-pyrimidinone (DMPU) and THF (Scheme 36). Although this enolate is noted not to be very reactive toward electrophiles, treatment with allyl iodide affected a facile alkylation to provide ketone 272. 

Page et al. (see [298] and references therein) have shown that generally excellent stereocontrol in organic reactions can be obtained by using DITOX (1,3-dithiane-l-oxide) derivatives as chiral auxiliaries. The one-pot stereo-controlled cycloalkanone synthesis given here outlines some aspects of the chemistry worked out for efficient acylation-alkylations steps. Of note are the use of N-acyl imidazoles under mixed base (sodium hexamethyldisilazide/n-butyllithium) conditions to yield the lithium enolates of 2-acyl-l,3-dithiane-l-oxides) and the sequential alkylation-cyclization of the latter (steps (iv) and (v)). 

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