Alkyne anions coupling

Propargyl dianion (QF I ). This anion can be prepared by dilithiation of allene with BuLi in 1 1 ether/hexane. Use of THF (- 50°) or BuLi/TMEDA results in a mixture of propargylide and allenyl anions. The anion couples readily with alkyl and allyl halides to give terminal alkynes. The intermediate lithium acetylide can also react with various electrophiles.3 Example ... 

Some of these coupling reactions can be made catalytic if hydrogen is eliminated and combines with the anion, thus leaving the nickel complex in the zero-valent state. Allylation of alkynes or of strained olefins with allylic acetates and nickel complexes with phosphites has been achieved (example 38, Table III). 

The radical anion of /3-trimethylsilylstyrene also undergoes dimerization but coupling takes place at the carbons a to silicon 33). The kinetics of the alkyne dimerization, followed by ESR, showed the reaction to be second order in radical anion 43). With Li+, Na+, K+, or Rb+ as the counterions, the rate increases in the order Si < C < Ge 45). Consistent with the increased stability of the trimethylsilyl-substituted radical anion, the radical anion of 1,4-bis(trimethylsilyl)butadiyne, produced by reduction with Li, Na, K, Rb, or Cs in THF is stable at room temperature even on exposure to air, whereas the carbon analog, 1,4-di-r-butyl-1,3-butadiyne radical anion, dimerizes by second-order kinetics at -40° (42). The enhanced stability of the trimethylsilylalkynyl radical anions has been attributed to p-drr interactions (42). 

Monosubstitution of acetylene itself to prepare terminal alkynes is not easy. Therefore, trimethylsilylacetylene (134) is used as a protected acetylene. After the coupling, the silyl group is removed by the treatment with fluoride anion. The hexasubstitution of hexabromobenzene (135) with 134 afforded hexaethynylbenzene (136) after desilylation in total yield of 28%. The product was converted to tris(benzocyclobutadieno)benzene (137) using a Co catalyst (see Section 7.2.1). Hexabutadiynylbenzene was prepared similarly [60], As another method, terminal alkynes 139 are prepared in excellent yields by the coupling of commercially available ethynyl Grignard (138) or ethynylzinc bromide with halides, without protection and deprotection [61]. 

The stereoselective synthesis of 1,4-disubstituted-l,3-dienes proceeds by head-to-head oxidative coupling of two alkynes with formation of an isolable metallacyclic biscarbene ruthenium complex [23], as shown in Scheme 6. Several key experiments involving labeled reagents and stoichiometric reactions and theoretical studies support the formation of a mixed Fischer-Schrock-type biscarbene complex which undergoes protonation at one carbene carbon atom whereas the other becomes accessible to nucleophilic addition of the carboxylate anion (Scheme 6) [23]. 

The first alkyne cyclisations, from 377, 379 and 381, predate the early alkene cyclisations by a couple of years these three date from 1966173 and 1967,174 and illustrate the favourability of both exo and endo-dig cyclisation. All three generate benzylic vinyllithiums (378, 380 and 382), and both aryl (377, 379) and alkyl halides (381) are successful starting materials. Similar organomagnesium cyclisations were described at about the same time.175 However, it is not clear in these reactions how much of the product is due to participation of radicals in the mechanism - alkylbromides undergo halogen-metal exchange with alkyllithiums via radical intermediates (chapter 3).176 If it really is an anionic cyclisation, cyclisation to 378 is remarkable in being endo. Endo-dig anionic cyclisations are discussed below. 

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