Alkylidene transfer

Although the base-catalyzed addition of nitroalkanes to electron-deficient olefins has been extensively used in organic synthesis fsee Michael addition Chapter 4, it is only recently that the reaction has been extended to the cyclopropanadon reaction. In 1978, it was reported that the anion of nitromethane reacts with certain highly electron-deficient olefins to produce cycloptopanesingoodyieldrEq. 7.36. More recently, this reaction has been extended to more general cyclopropanadons, as shown in Eqs. 7.37 and 7.38, in which potassittm salts of nitroalkanes are employed in DMSO as alkylidene transfer reagents." ... 

Aside from the methylide and cyclopropylide reagents, the sulfonium ylides are not very stable. A related group of reagents derived from sulfoximines offers greater versatility in alkylidene transfer reactions.286 The preparation and use of this class of ylides is illustrated below. 

The impetus for the development of gem-bimetallics was initially to discover alkylidene-transfer reagents akin to Tebbe s reagent [14]. Schwartz prepared bimetallic aluminum—zirconocene derivatives by the hydrometallation of various vinyl metallic compounds [15—17]. Knochel has developed zinc—zirconium gem-bimetallics by hydrozircona-tion of vinylzincs and has used them as alkylidene-transfer reagents [18], More recently, other gem-bimetallics have been developed that exhibit different reactivities of the two carbon—metal bonds. Thus, Normant and Marek have reported the allylmetallation of vinyl metals to afford zinc—magnesium and zinc—lithium gem-bimetallics, which react selectively with various electrophiles such as ClSnBu3, H20, etc. [19, and references cited therein]. However, selective and sequential cleavage of the two carbon—metal bonds... 

A -(4-Toluenesulphonyl)sulphilimines, which are useful precursors in the synthesis of oxiranes and in alkylidene transfer reactions, have been prepared under solidiliquid phase-transfer catalytic conditions from Chloramine-T [2], Comparable yields are obtained irrespective of whether the reaction is catalysed by Adogen or by benzyltriethylammonium chloride (Table 4.31). The procedure is an improvement on the liquiddiquid two-phase method [3]. 

The most common method for the generation of the metal alkylidene species seems to be a-elimination from an intermediate dialkyl-metal species. This procedure gives the most active catalysts. Above we mentioned the addition of other carbene precursors, which leads to active catalysts. Other methods to generate the metal alkylidene species involve alkylidene transfer from phosphoranes [16] or ring-opening of cyclopropenes [17], In Chapter 16.4 we will describe a few compounds that are active by themselves as metathesis catalysts. 

Finally, it should be noted that in contrast to optically labile sulfonium ylides, the oxosulfonium yUdes derived from chiral sulfoximides and related compounds are configurationally stable. Johnson and co-workers (184) have obtained a large number of chiral oxosulfonium ylides having the general structures 161 and 162 and have used them as nucleophilic alkylidene transfer agents for asymmetric synthesis. These results are discussed in the last part of this chapter. 

Figure 4 Routes to the Grubbs catalyst 22b and related alkylidene species. Routes based on ring opening (yellow dot), alkylidene transfer (green), alkyne reagents (red), chloroalkanes (blue) are shown in the figure.

N-(p-Tolyl sulfonyl)sulfonimidoyl-stabilized carbanions act in a similar way to nucleophilic alkylidene transfer reagents with electrophilic double bonds (C=0, C=N activated C=C) [467]. The example given here is illustrative. 

Nitroalkanes282 288 as well as alkyl sulfones283 288 can serve as useful and general alkyli-dene transfer reagents for highly activated Michael acceptors such as alkylidenemalonic esters (equation 131), Alumina-supported potassium fluoride is an effective reagent for the reaction of nitroalkanes282. The alkylidene transfer from sulfones may be promoted by Ni(acac)2289. 

Methylene and Nonfunctionalized Alkylidene Transfer to Form Cyclopropanes... 

Finally, aldehydes have also been reported to serve as alkylidene transfer reagents.93 Examples of these further cyclopropanation procedures are summarized in Table 6. 

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