Allyl anions configurational stability

If R1 differs from R2. the preparation may lead to both regioisomers. In these cases, a synthetic route which does not rely on allyl anion substitution is often the most advantageous one. Thus, the best results are recorded for allylboronates and -silanes which also possess the required constitutional and configurational stability. 

No thermal ring openings are observed for conventional cyclopropyl anions, even if they carry two phenyl groups to provide stabilization of the potential terminus of the allyl anion. CH acidic optically active precursors of cyclopropyl anions exhibit a very high degree of retention of configuration when treated with bases in polar protic solvents and in most cases in aprotic solvents, too. - ... 

Reactions of methyllithium or methyl Grignard reagents resulted in the formation of optically active silyl anions which were characterized after hydrolysis and reaction with allyl bromide (243). The observed overall predominant retention of configuration provides evidence for the optical stability of silyl anions. Their first preparation was reported by Sommer and Mason (245) and they appeared configurationally less stable than the chiral germyl anions (31). 

A wide range of transition metal-allyl complexes are known to react with many types of nucleophiles. In most cases, these reactions occur between cationic allyl complexes and amines or stabilized, anionic carbon nucleophiles. The reaction typically occurs between the nucleophile and the form of the allyl complex, and attack usually occurs at the face of the allyl ligand opposite the metal. However, there are exceptions to these trends. For example, several experiments suggest that unstabilized carbon nucleophiles react first at the metal center, and C-C bond formation occurs between the alkyl and the allyl group by reductive elimination. In addition, a recent study has shown through deuterium labeling that attack of malonate anion on a molybdenum-allyl complex occurs with retention of configuration. ... 

Many studies of the addition of nucleophiles to palladium-allyl complexes have been conducted. Hayashi has shown that the additions of stabilized anions, such as malonate anions or amine nucleophiles, to chiral, non-racemic allyl complexes occur with inversion of configuration.Addition of excess phosphine and either diethyl malonate or dimethylamine to a chiral, non-racemic allyl complex results in nucleophilic attack with nearly complete inversion. The reaction with sodium dimethylmalonate is shown at the right of Equation 11.40. In contrast, nonstabilized carbanions such as allyl or phenyl magnesium chloride react with the same Ti -allylpalladium complex with retention of configuration as shown at the left of Equation 11.40. The stereochemistry from reaction of the Grignard reagents likely results from nucleophilic attack at the metal, followed by reductive elimination. 

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