Alkynes scope

The transition-metal-catalyzed [2 + 2 + 1] cycloaddition of two alkynes and heteroatom sources is a useful method for the synthesis of five-membered heterocycles. For example, a silylene species reacts with two alkynes 64 in the presence of nickel or palladium catalyst to afford substituted siloles 65 and 66. Various silylene equivalents, such as disilanes 67 [24], silacyclopropenes 68 [25], 69 [26], cyclotrisilanes 70 [27], alkylidenesilacyclopropanes 71 [28], silacyclopropanes 72, and 73 [29], have been developed as shown in Scheme 6.21. However, the utility for organic synthesis has been limited, due to the difficulty of those organosilane syntheses and the narrow alkyne scope. 

An efficient Rh-catalyzed C-H alkenylation and electrocyclization sequence that provides easy access to highly substituted dihydropyridines 91 from a,p unsaturated imines and alkynes was reported by Ellman (Eq. (5.88)) [47]. The alkyne scope was good nonsymmetric alkynes gave the dihydropyridine products as single regioisomers in most cases. The 1,2-dihydropyridines can be oxidized efficiently to pyridines. 

Weiss CJ, Marks TJ. Organozirconium complexes as catalysts for Markovnikov-selective intermolecular hydrothiolation of terminal alkynes scope and mechanism. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010 132 10533-10546. 

Zr-Catalyzed Cyclic Bimetallic Ethylalumination of Alkynes. Scope,... 

Fluorinated cyclobutanes and cyclobutenes are relatively easy to prepare because of the propensity of many gem-difluoroolefins to thermally cyclodimerize and cycloadd to alkenes and alkynes. Even with dienes, fluoroolefins commonly prefer to form cyclobutane rather than six-membered-ring Diels-Alder adducts. Tetrafluoroethylene, chlorotrifluoroethylene, and l,l-dichloro-2,2-difluoroethyl-ene are especially reactive in this context. Most evidence favors a stepwise diradical or, less often, a dipolar mechanism for [2+2] cycloadditions of fluoroalkenes [S5, (5], although arguments for a symmetry-allowed, concerted [2j-t-2J process persist [87], The scope, characteristic features, and mechanistic studies of fluoroolefin... 

Although beyond the scope of the present discussion, another key realization that has shaped the definition of click chemistry in recent years was that while olefins, through their selective oxidative functionalization, provide convenient access to reactive modules, the assembly of these energetic blocks into the final structures is best achieved through cydoaddition reactions involving carbon-het-eroatom bond formation, such as [l,3]-dipolar cydoadditions and hetero-Diels-Al-der reactions. The copper(i)-catalyzed cydoaddition of azides and terminal alkynes [5] is arguably the most powerful and reliable way to date to stitch a broad variety... 

A pathway may be considered which involves a double regioselective alkyne insertion followed by a stereoselective cyclisation to undergo a novel [3+2+2]-cyclisation. These examples illustrate the scope in which the reactivity of Fischer carbene complexes can be tuned in a qualitative manner by transmetalation. 

To check the scope of this coupling reaction, a study with different combinations of aldehydes, amines, and terminal alkynes was performed. Aromatic alkynes turned out to be more reactive than aliphatic ones. This study included aliphatic... 

Subsequently, the scope of amines and alkynes in this reaction was investigated, and it was found that substituted anilines (R = p-Me, p-MeO, p-Cl and w-Br) were... 

In furtherance of these smdies, the reaction scope was broadened by employing homopropargylic amines to give the corresponding aza-cycles (Scheme 26) [39, 40]. Hence, the alkyne aza-Prins cyclization between homopropargyl tosyl amines... 

The stoichiometric insertion of terminal alkenes into the Cu-B bond of the (NHC)Cu-B(cat) complex, and the isolation and full characterisation of the p-boryl-alkyl-copper (I) complex has been reported. The alkyl complex decomposes at higher temperatures by P-H elimination to vinylboronate ester [67]. These data provide experimental evidence for a mechanism involving insertion of alkenes into Cu-boryl bonds, and establish a versatile and inexpensive catalytic system of wide scope for the diboration of alkenes and alkynes based on copper. 

Another important click reaction is the cycloaddition of azides. The addition of sodium azide to nitriles to give l//-tetrazoles is shown to proceed readily in water with zinc salts as catalysts (Eq. 11.71).122 The scope of the reaction is quite broad a variety of aromatic nitriles, activated and nonactivated alkyl nitriles, substituted vinyl nitriles, thiocyanates, and cyanamides have all been shown to be viable substrates for this reaction. The reaction of an arylacetylene with an azide in hot water gave 1,4-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles in high yields,123 while a similar reaction between a terminal aliphatic alkyne and an azide (except 111 - nitroazidobenzcnc) afforded a mixture of regioisomers with... 

A variety of alternate methods for the reductive coupling of aldehydes and alkynes have been developed. A number of important hydrometallative strategies have been developed, although most of these methods require the stoichiometric formation of a vinyl metal species or metallacycle. A very attractive hydrogenative coupling method has recently been developed, and its scope is largely complementary to the nickel-catalyzed methods. A very brief overview of these methods is provided below. 

A variety of aldehyde/alkyne reductive couplings involving the stoichiometric use of early transition metals (Ti and Zr) have been developed (Scheme 27) [68-70]. The low cost and ease of handling of titanium alkox-ides render these stoichiometric processes very practical despite the lack of catalytic turnover. Recent variants of stoichiometric processes involving titanium alkoxides have demonstrated impressive scope in relatively complex applications [71-73]. 

Although the titanium-based methods are typically stoichiometric, catalytic turnover was achieved in one isolated example with trialkoxysilane reducing agents with titanocene catalysts (Scheme 28) [74], This example (as part of a broader study of enal cyclizations [74,75]) was indeed the first process to demonstrate catalysis in a silane-based aldehyde/alkyne reductive coupling and provided important guidance in the development of the nickel-catalyzed processes that are generally more tolerant of functionality and broader in scope. 

We are applying the principles of enzyme mechanism to organometallic catalysis of the reactions of nonpolar and polar molecules for our early work using heterocyclic phosphines, please see ref. 1.(1) Here we report that whereas uncatalyzed alkyne hydration by water has a half-life measured in thousands of years, we have created improved catalysts which reduce the half-life to minutes, even at neutral pH. These data correspond to enzyme-like rate accelerations of >3.4 x 109, which is 12.8 times faster than our previously reported catalyst and 1170 times faster than the best catalyst known in the literature without a heterocyclic phosphine. In some cases, practical hydration can now be conducted at room temperature. Moreover, our improved catalysts favor anti-Markovnikov hydration over traditional Markovnikov hydration in ratios of over 1000 to 1, with aldehyde yields above 99% in many cases. In addition, we find that very active hydration catalysts can be created in situ by adding heterocyclic phosphines to otherwise inactive catalysts. The scope, limitations, and development of these reactions will be described in detail. 

Some years ago we began a program to explore the scope of the palladium-catalyzed annulation of alkenes, dienes and alkynes by functionally-substituted aryl and vinylic halides or triflates as a convenient approach to a wide variety of heterocycles and carbocycles. We subsequently reported annulations involving 1,2-, 1,3- and 1,4-dienes unsaturated cyclopropanes and cyclobutanes cyclic and bicyclic alkenes and alkynes, much of which was reviewed in 1999 (Scheme l).1 In recent days our work has concentrated on the annulation of alkynes. Recent developments in this area will be reviewed and some novel palladium migration processes that have been discovered during the course of this work will be discussed. 

Organometallic complexes of the /-elements have been reported that will perform both intra-and intermolecular hydroamination reactions of alkenes and alkynes, although these lie outside of the scope of this review.149-155 Early transition metal catalysts are not very common, although a number of organometallic systems exist.156-158 In these and other cases, the intermediacy of a metal imido complex LnM=NR was proposed.159,160 Such a species has recently been isolated (53) and used as a direct catalyst precursor for N-H addition to alkynes and allenes (Scheme 35).161,162... 

The current scope of the controlled monocarbotitanation of alkenes and alkynes is still very limited at least in part due to competitive side-reactions arising via ft- and a-agostic interactions, as alluded to Scheme 6. On the other hand, polymerization, also shown in Scheme 6, may be largely avoided or minimized in most cases. T o overcome some of the difficulties mentioned above, cyclic version of monocarbotitanation have been explored,25-27 as shown in Scheme 12. None of these reactions has as yet been widely used, but their further development might lead to synthetically useful methods. 

The very first example of the catalytic reductive cyclization of an acetylenic aldehyde involves the use of a late transition metal catalyst. Exposure of alkynal 78a to a catalytic amount of Rh2Co2(CO)12 in the presence of Et3SiH induces highly stereoselective hydrosilylation-cyclization to provide the allylic alcohol 78b.1 8 This rhodium-based catalytic system is applicable to the cyclization of terminal alkynes to form five-membered rings, thus complementing the scope of the titanocene-catalyzed reaction (Scheme 54). 

A mechanistic pathway is proposed based upon the observed regioselectivities and other results that were obtained during the exploration of the scope and limitations of the Alder-ene reaction.38 Initially, coordination of the alkene and alkyne to the ruthenium catalyst takes place (Scheme 5). Next, oxidative addition affords the metallocycles 42 and 43. It is postulated that /3-hydride elimination is slow and that the oxidative addition step is reversible. Thus, the product ratio is determined by the rate at which 42 and 43 undergo /3-hydride elimination. 

Subsequent examination of a tethered alkyne-VCP with rhodium(i) resulted in the first metal-catalyzed [5 + 2]-reaction. Excellent yields were obtained with a variety of substrates (Scheme 3) irrespective of the steric and electronic nature of the R1 group. Notably, quaternary centers are accessed in high yield. Since this first report, in-depth studies on catalysts, substrate scope, selectivity, and applications to total synthesis have been carried out. Work in this area has been reviewed.23-26... 

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