Allenes nucleophile addition

Intramolecular nucleophilic additions by nitrogen functional groups onto pendant alkynes and allenes represent an important class of type la approaches to functionalized pyrroles. A platinum-catalyzed (PtCl4) cyclization of homopropargyl azides provided an entry to 2,5-disubstituted pyrroles and 4,5,6,7-tetrahydroindoles (fused pyrroles) <06OL5349>. 

In addition to alkenes and alkynes, allenes have attracted considerable interest due to their unique reactivity and multireaction sites. Therefore, transition-metal-catalyzed nucleophilic addition reaction of amines and imines to allenes has been extensively studied to prepare biologically important amines and nitrogen-heterocycles.31,31d... 

The allenes 1 directly connected with an electron-withdrawing substituent have been used successfully as synthetic building blocks for more than four decades (see Scheme 7.1). The polarization of the C=C double bonds by the acceptor substituent allows a wide and very useful range of subsequent reactions, for example nucleophilic additions, cycloadditions and miscellaneous syntheses of heterocydes. 

Several trivial but highly useful reactions are known to convert one acceptor-substituted allene into another. For example, the transformation of allenic carboxylic acids is possible both via the corresponding 2,3-allenoyl chlorides or directly to 2,3-allen-amides [182,185], Allenylimines were prepared by condensation of allenyl aldehydes with primary amines [199]. However, the analogous reaction of allenyl ketones fails because in this case the nucleophilic addition to the central carbon atom of the allenic unit predominates (cf. Section 7.3.1). Allenyl sulfoxides can be oxidized by m-CPBA to give nearly quantitatively the corresponding allenyl sulfones [200]. The reaction of the ketone 144 with bromine yields first a 2 1 mixture of the addition product 145 and the allene 146, respectively (Scheme 7.24). By use of triethylamine, the unitary product 146 is obtained [59]. The allenylphosphane oxides and allene-... 

The reactions of acceptor-substituted allenes are as manifold as their syntheses. The electron deficiency of the inner C=C double bond prove to be the predominating property of these allenes. Therefore, nucleophilic addition at the central carbon atom is an important first step inducing many reactions of the electron-deficient allenes. 

The nucleophilic addition of alcohols [130, 204-207], phenols [130], carboxylates [208], ammonia [130, 209], primary and secondary amines [41, 130, 205, 210, 211] and thiols [211-213] was used very early to convert several acceptor-substituted allenes 155 to products of type 158 and 159 (Scheme 7.25, Nu = OR, OAr, 02CR, NH2, NHR, NRR and SR). While the addition of alcohols, phenols and thiols is generally carried out in the presence of an auxiliary base, the reaction of allenyl ketones to give vinyl ethers of type 159 (Nu = OMe) is successful also by irradiation in pure methanol [214], Using widely varying reaction conditions, the addition of hydrogen halides (Nu= Cl, Br, I) to the allenes 155 leads to reaction products of type 158 [130, 215-220], Therefore, this transformation was also classified as a nucleophilic addition. Finally, the nucleophiles hydride (such as lithium aluminum hydride-aluminum trichloride) [211] and azide [221] could also be added to allenic esters to yield products of type 159. 

It was recognized in early examples of nucleophilic addition to acceptor-substituted allenes that formation of the non-conjugated product 158 is a kinetically controlled reaction. On the other hand, the conjugated product 159 is the result of a thermodynamically controlled reaction [205, 215]. Apparently, after the attack of the nucleophile on the central carbon atom of the allene 155, the intermediate 156 is formed first. This has to execute a torsion of 90° to merge into the allylic carbanion 157. Whereas 156 can only yield the product 158 by proton transfer, the protonation of 157 leads to both 158 and 159. 

Based on nucleophilic addition, racemic allenyl sulfones were partially resolved by reaction with a deficiency of optically active primary or secondary amines [243]. The reversible nucleophilic addition of tertiary amines or phosphanes to acceptor-substituted allenes can lead to the inversion of the configuration of chiral allenes. For example, an optically active diester 177 with achiral groups R can undergo a racemization (Scheme 7.29). A 4 5 mixture of (M)- and (P)-177 with R = (-)-l-menthyl, obtained through synthesis of the allene from dimenthyl 1,3-acetonedicar-boxylate (cf. Scheme 7.18) [159], furnishes (M)-177 in high diastereomeric purity in 90% yield after repeated crystallization from pentane in the presence of catalytic amounts of triethylamine [158], Another example of a highly elegant epimerization of an optically active allene based on reversible nucleophilic addition was published by Marshall and Liao, who were successful in the transformation 179 — 180 [35], Recently, Lu et al. published a very informative review on the reactions of electron-deficient allenes under phosphane catalysis [244]. 

The attack of the nucleophile on the acceptor-substituted allene usually happens at the central sp-hybridized carbon atom. This holds true also if no nucleophilic addition but a nucleophilic substitution in terms of an SN2 reaction such as 181 — 182 occurs (Scheme 7.30) [245]. The addition of ethanol to the allene 183 is an exception [157]. In this case, the allene not only bears an acceptor but shows also the substructure of a vinyl ether. A change in the regioselectivity of the addition of nucleophilic compounds NuH to allenic esters can be effected by temporary introduction of a triphenylphosphonium group [246]. For instance, the ester 185 yields the phos-phonium salt 186, which may be converted further to the ether 187. Evidently, the triphenylphosphonium group induces an electrophilic character at the terminal carbon atom of 186 and this is used to produce 187, which is formally an abnormal product of the addition of methanol to the allene 185. This method of umpolung is also applicable to nucleophilic addition reactions to allenyl ketones in a modified procedure [246, 247]. 

Different strategies all including nucleophilic addition to acceptor-substituted allenes have been used for the synthesis of cyclic compounds, mostly heterocycles. Thus, it is obvious to release a nucleophile already existing within the allenic compound in a protected form. For example, treatment of silyl ethers 197 with tetrabu-tylammonium fluoride (TBAF) leads to the intermediates 198, which yield the dihy-drofurans 199 by nucleophilic addition (Scheme 7.32) [251]. 

The transfer of such sequences to various acceptor-substituted allenes 214 and to O-deprotonated N-phenylhydroxylamines 215 was investigated thoroughly by Ble-chert [255, 256]. After the nucleophilic addition forming the intermediate 216, the [3,3]-sigmatropic isomerization takes place at low temperature in only a few minutes... 

Allenic esters such as 185 can act not only as dipolarophiles but also, at least formally, as 1,3-dipoles, which was shown by Xu and Lu during the phosphane-cata-lyzed reaction with N-tosylimines 387 (Scheme 7.52) [358, 359]. The heterocycles 388 are formed at least in moderate and mostly in excellent yields, if R1 is an aryl or a vinyl group. The formation of the products can be explained by reversible nucleophilic addition of the phosphane to 185 (cf. Section 7.3.1) followed by nucleophilic addition of the resulting intermediate to the imine 387. 

In this chapter, both intermolecular and intramolecular electrophilic [1] and nucleophilic additions [2, 3] to allenes will be discussed. For electrophilic addition, the regio- and stereoselectivity depend on the steric and electronic effects of the substituents on the allenes and the nature of the electrophiles. However, nucleophilic addition usually occurs at the central carbon atom with very limited exceptions. 

The nucleophilic addition of 1,2-allenic phosphonates with EtOH followed by hydrolysis leads to the formation of /8-ketophosphonates (Scheme 10.75) [83a]. Intramolecular nucleophilic addition of a hydroxyl group with 1,2-allenic phosphonate was also observed to produce 2,3-dihydrofurans [83b]. 

AUenyl pyridinium salts 303 are a class of electron-deficient allenes, of which the center carbon atom can accept nucleophilic addition of diethylamine and pyridine derivatives [147, 148]. 

A one-pot synthesis of 3,3-disubstituted indolines was achieved by taking advantage of a sequential carbopalladation of allene, nucleophile attack, intramolecular insertion of an olefm and termination with NaBPh4 (Scheme 16.6) [10]. First, a Pd(0) species reacts with iodothiophene selectively to afford ArPdl, probably because the oxidative addition step is facilitated by coordination with the adjacent sulfur atom. Second, the ArPdl adds to allene, giving a Jt-allylpalladium complex, which is captured by a 2-iodoaniline derivative to afford an isolable allylic compound. Under more severe conditions, the oxidative addition of iodide to Pd(0) followed by the insertion of an internal olefm takes place to give an alkylpalladium complex, which is transmetallated with NaBPh4 to release the product. 

Propargylamines could serve as a suitable allyl moiety in aza-Claisen rearrangements. The 3,3-sigmatropic bond reorganization led to allenes, which easily underwent consecutive processes like nucleophile addition and cycliza-tion in a tandem process. 

Common reactions of the ylide include (i) [2,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement of allylic, propargylic, and allenic ylides (ii) [l,2]-shift (Stevens rearrangement) (iii) 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of the ylide generated from carbonyl compounds or imines with dipolarophiles, usually G=G or C=C bonds and (iv) nucleophilic addition/elimination, leading to the formation of epoxides or cyclopropanes (Figure 2). 

See, for example, Walker Manyik Atkins Farmer Tetrahedron Lett. 1970, 3817 Takahashi Miyake Hata Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn. 1972, 45. 1183 Baker Cook Halliday Smith J. Chem. Soc.. Perkin Trans. 2 1974, 1511 Hegedus Allen Waterman J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1976, 98, 2674. For a review, see Gasc et al.. Ref. 198. For a review of metal-catalyzed nucleophilic addition, see Bdckvall Adv. Met.-Org. Chem. 1989, 1. 135-175. 

Nucleophilic additions to activated allenes have been reported fairly often. Since there are several good recent reviews of this area,131 only a brief overview is given here. 

The thiylation of conjugated dienes and allenes proceeds as expected. Thus, the acid-catalyzed reaction of thiols with 1,3-dienes affords the 1,4-addition product,552 whereas the nucleophilic addition to allene provides the product arising from sulfur attack at the central carbon (equations 303 and 304).553... 

Simple allenes (209) react with dimethyldioxirane (200) to give the corresponding spiro-dioxides 210 in instances where diastereoisomeric spiro-dioxides are possible, there is usually an acceptable stereochemical preference for epoxidation to occur anti to the alkyl substituents324,325. Allenic alcohol 211 yields the highly functionalized tetrahydro-furan 212 and tetrahydropyran derivatives by intramolecular nucleophilic addition of the hydroxy group to an intermediate allene diepoxide324. 

The third reaction was related to the hydrocarboxylation of allenes with C02, catalyzed by a tridendate silyl pincer-type palladium complex [108]. In this reaction, a a-allyl palladium species (via hydropallation of allene) was formed, and its trigonal bipyramidal geometry allowed the facile coordination of C02 (presumably in a side-on fashion) and a following nucleophilic addition to realize the carboxylation of allene (Figure 4.16). This reaction proved to be very attractive not only as a C02 fixation reaction, but also as a general method for the synthesis of Py-unsaturated carboxylic acids. 

Hydroboration of allenes 65 with pinacolborane in the presence of Pt(DBA)2 and a trialkylphosphine provides either the allyl boronate 66 or the vinyl boronate 67 regioselectively, depending on the stereoelectronic factors of the phosphine employed (Equation 2) <1999CL1069>. Allyl and vinyl boronates are synthetically important because of their ability to undergo nucleophilic addition to carbonyl compounds as well as transition metal-catalyzed cross-coupling. 

In principle, the nucleophile can attack the allene at two different positions, but the products show exclusive attack at the central carbon atom, similarly to other nucleophilic additions to allenes (Eglinton et al., 1954 Stirling, 1964b Taylor, 1967). This may result from the stabilization of the carbanion (194), formed by attack at this position, by the two phenyl groups. The ion (194) may be protonated at either one of the terminal positions of the allenic system, and low amounts of... 

In a recently reported synthesis of pyridines, lithiated methoxyallenes react with nitriles in the presence of trifluoroacetic acid (Scheme 107) <2004CEJ4283>. The mechanism is postulated to proceed via initial protonation followed by nucleophilic addition of the trifluoroacetate ion with subsequent intramolecular acyl transfer and aldol condensation to give the pyridine. An additional pyridine formation starting from azaenyne allenes forms a-5-didehydro-3-picoline diradicals, which can be trapped by 1,4-cyclohexadiene, chloroform, and methanol to produce various pyridines <20040L2059>. 

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