Allylation Lanthanide Lewis acid catalyze

Lanthanide Lewis acids catalyze many of the reactions catalyzed by other Lewis acids, for example, the Mukaiyama-aldol reaction [14], Diels-Alder reactions [15], epoxide opening by TMSCN and thiols [14,10], and the cyanosilylation of aldehydes and ketones [17]. For most of these reactions, however, lanthanide Lewis acids have no advantages over other Lewis acids. The enantioselective hetero Diels-Alder reactions reported by Danishefsky et al. exploited one of the characteristic properties of lanthanides—mild Lewis acidity. This mildness enables the use of substrates unstable to common Lewis acids, for example Danishefsky s diene. It was recently reported by Shull and Koreeda that Eu(fod)3 catalyzed the allylic 1,3-transposition of methoxyace-tates (Table 7) [18]. This rearrangement did not proceed with acetates or benzoates, and seemed selective to a-alkoxyacetates. This suggested that the methoxy group could act as an additional coordination site for the Eu catalyst, and that this stabilized the complex of the Eu catalyst and the ester. The reaction proceeded even when the substrate contained an alkynyl group (entry 7), or when proximal alkenyl carbons of the allylic acetate were fully substituted (entries 10, 11 and 13). In these cases, the Pd(II) catalyzed allylic 1,3-transposition of allylic acetates was not efficient. 

A mechanistic study of the role of the lanthanide cations suggests that they catalyze decomposition of borohydride by the hydroxylic solvent to afford alkoxyborohydrides, which may responsible for the observed regioselectivity. The stereoselectivity of the process is also modified by the presence of Ln " ions, in that axial attack of cyclohexenone systems is enhanced. a,p-Unsaturated aldehydes are regio-selectively reduced to allylic alcohols by bis(triphenylphosphine)copper(I) tetrahydroborate in the presence of Lewis acid catalyst. ... 

Allylation using allylic organostannane can be performed in aqueous media catalyzed by water-tolerant Lewis acids such as scandium and lanthanide triflates... 

Greeves e( al. reported that lanthanide triflates were effective for allylation of carbonyl compounds (20). Five mole percent of Yb(OTf)3 catalyzed the allylation of a series of aldehydes in good yield (Scheme 13.9) [20a]. Later they found a significant rate of acceleration by the Bronsted add in allylation of aldehydes with allyltributyltin catalyzed by ytterbium triflate (Table 13.9) [20b]. Recently, the concept of combined Lewis acid-Bronsted catalysis has attracted much attention from the chemical community because it often gives rise to significant improvement... 

Lewis acid catalysis is one of the most useful methods in modern organic synthesis. However, many of the common Lewis acids are highly water-labile and have been used in organic synthesis under strictly anhydrous conditions. Contrary to this, it was found that lanthanide triflates catalyzed aldol reactions of formaldehyde (Scheme 3.6). Formaldehyde is one of the most highly reactive Cl electrophiles. In this reaction, not gaseous formaldehyde but a commercially available aqueous solution was used as the formaldehyde source. This invaluable find introduced the concept of Lewis acid catalysis in aqueous media to many chemists. Later, it was also reported that other aldol reactions, with a variety of aldehydes and silyl enol ethers, as well as allylation reactions, proceeded smoothly in aqueous media to afford the desired compounds in high yields. ... 

The same researchers found that lanthanide triflates could catalyze aldol reactions and allylations in aqueous media [10]. However, Wang et al. exploited the potential of lanthanide triflates to act as stable Lewis-acid catalysts in the aqueous imino Diels-Alder reaction [11]. This variant of the aqueous heterocycloaddition protocol also expands the scope of such reactions. The use of higher aldehydes in such reactions generally met with limited success under the conventional protocol. For example, under the standard conditions, the reaction of hexanal and benzylamine hydrochloride with cyclopentadiene in water is sluggish and affords only 4% of the Diels-Alder adducts 26 and 27 in a 2.7/1 ratio. In sharp contrast, the addition of various lanthanide(lll) triflates (0.25 M) to this reaction results in substantial increases in both the rate and yield of Diels-Alder adduct formation. In particular, use of praseodymium(iii) triflate results in a 68% yield of adducts 26 and 27 ... 

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