Allylic alcohols protonation

The initial step is the protonation of the aldehyde—e.g. formaldehyde—at the carbonyl oxygen. The hydroxycarbenium ion 6 is thus formed as reactive species, which reacts as electrophile with the carbon-carbon double bond of the olefinic substrate by formation of a carbenium ion species 7. A subsequent loss of a proton from 7 leads to formation of an allylic alcohol 4, while reaction with water, followed by loss of a proton, leads to formation of a 1,3-diol 3 " ... 

Another interesting example of dehydrative C-C coupling involves the alkylation of benzimidazole 36 with allyl alcohol 37, which is catalysed by complex 39 [15], The reaction is believed to proceed by alkene complex formation with the allyl alcohol 37 with loss of water from the NH proton of the NHC ligand and OH of the allyl alcohol to give an intermediate Ji-allyl complex. The initially formed 2-allylbenzimidazole isomerises to a mixture of the internal alkenes 38 (Scheme 11.9). 

An extension of this method can be used to prepare allylic alcohols. Instead of being protonated, the (3-oxido ylide is allowed to react with formaldehyde. The (J-oxido ylide and formaldehyde react to give, on warming, an allylic alcohol. Entry 12 is an example of this reaction. The reaction is valuable for the stereoselective synthesis of Z-allylic alcohols from aldehydes.245... 

Polyene Cyclization. Perhaps the most synthetically useful of the carbo-cation alkylation reactions is the cyclization of polyenes having two or more double bonds positioned in such a way that successive bond-forming steps can occur. This process, called polyene cyclization, has proven to be an effective way of making polycyclic compounds containing six-membered and, in some cases, five-membered rings. The reaction proceeds through an electrophilic attack and requires that the double bonds that participate in the cyclization be properly positioned. For example, compound 1 is converted quantitatively to 2 on treatment with formic acid. The reaction is initiated by protonation and ionization of the allylic alcohol and is terminated by nucleophilic capture of the cyclized secondary carbocation. 

Proton and Carbon NMR Data. Some characteristic 13C and XH NMR data for fluorinated allylic alcohols and bromide are provided in Scheme 3.44. 

Stereoselective preparation of ( )-allyl alcohols via radical elimination from anti-j-phenylthio-P-nitro alcohols has been reported.154 The requisite anti-P-nitro sulfides are prepared by protonation of nitronates at low temperature (see Chapter 4), and subsequent treatment with Bu3SnH induces anti elimination to give (E)-alkenes selectively (see Eq. 7.112). Unfortunately, it is difficult to get the pure yyw-P-nitro sulfides. Treatment of a mixture of syn- and anti-P-nitrosulfides with Bu3SnH results in formation of a mixture of (E)- and (Z)-alkenes. 

Shida and Hamill23 found that the positive and negative molecular ions of 1,3-butadiene and its homologs have similar absorption spectra. Band maxima of the anions are not sensitive to substituent alkyl groups, whereas those of the cations are red-shifted as the number of substituent methyl groups increases. In alcoholic matrices the butadiene anions abstract the alcoholic proton to form an allylic radical (equation 23), as was proven by ESR spectroscopy. 

The study of several other model ethers derived from benzylic and allylic alcohols for which -elimination of a proton is possible confirmed that this reaction is general and occurs at low temperatures in the presence of strong acid. 

Attempts by Fish and Johnson to effect a steroid synthesis using a standard epoxide-initiated pentacyclization of a polyene afforded complex mixtures [69]. Alternatively, the allyl alcohol 326 was synthesized and treated with TFA (Scheme 19.60). Protonation affords a symmetrical tetramethylallyl cation that undergoes cyclization to give pentacycle 327 in 31% yield. Simultaneous cleavage of the isopropylidene and vinylidene groups was carried out to furnish the diketone 328 in 88% yield, which was then converted to sophoradiol (329). 

The regioselectivity in palladium-catalyzed alkylations has been attributed to the dynamic behavior of trihapto pentadienyl metal complexes60. For example, competing electronic and steric effects influence product formation in dienyl epoxides, but in palladium-catalyzed reactions steric factors were often found to be more important. Thus, alkylation of dienyl epoxide 76 with bulky nucleophiles such as bis(benzenesulfonyl)me-thane in the presence of (Ph3P)4Pd occurred exclusively at the terminal carbon of the dienyl system producing allyl alcohol 77 (equation 39). However, the steric factors could be overcome by electronic effects when one of the terminal vinylic protons was replaced with an electron-withdrawing group. Thus, alkylation of dienyl epoxide 78 affords homoal-lylic alcohol 79 as the major product (equation 40). 

Indirect electroreduction of allyl alcohols leading to the corresponding unsaturated hydrocarbons is attained using a mercury electrode in a strongly acidic medium containing an iodide salt [554]. The reaction involves transformation of the alcohol into the iodide, the reaction of the iodide with mercury, the protonation of the... 

A recent study has indicated that the skeletal rearrangement step in the B12-catalysed isomerization of methylmalonyl-CoA to succinyl-CoA occurs not by a radical pathway but by an anionic or organocobalt pathway. A computational study of the isomerization of allyl alcohol into homoallyl alcohol by lithium amide has pointed to a process proceeding via a transition state in which the proton is half transferred between carbon and nitrogen in a hetero-dimer. l,l-Dilithio-2,2-diphenylethene... 

Cyclic epoxides such as 124 can react in two ways with strong bases (a) via abstraction of a /3-proton to form allylic alcoholates 125 or (b) by deprotonation at the epoxide carbon atom forming the intermediate 126 and, after electrophilic substitution, the epoxides 128. If there is a suitable C—H bond in the vicinity of the C-Li moiety, intramolecular carbenoid insertion reactions to 127 may take place (equation 27) ° . ... 

To conclude, the models proposed below are in good agreement with the empirical data and allow a first approach to an efficient rational design of homochiral bases. However, they only take the major NMR or X-ray observable solution HCLA complexes into consideration minor aggregates involving allylic alcoholate or protonated amine products, that might be reactive and contribute to the product formation, are ignored ... 

Formation of 173 from 171 on hydrogenation pointed to the presence of an allylic alcohol group in 171. This was confirmed by oxidation of 171 to ketone 174. There were strong bands at 1650 and 1580 cm in the IR spectrum of 174 typical for a —CO—C=C—— system. The absence of olefmic protons in the NMR spectrum of 171 suggested the double bond to be at C-11—C-16, while a hydroxyl group is positioned at C-15 or C-17. 

The present method offers a more efficient and convenient two-step route to the parent a,B-unsaturated acylsilane derivative. The first step in the procedure involves the conversion of allyl alcohol to allyl trimethylsilyl ether, followed by metalation (in the same flask) with tert-butyllithiura at -75°C. Protonation of the resulting mixture of interconverting lithium derivatives (2 and 3) with aqueous ammonium chloride solution furnishes (1-hydroxy-2-propenyl)trimethylsilane (4), which is smoothly transformed to (1-oxo-2-propenyl)trimethylsilane by Swern oxidation. The acylsilane is obtained in 53-68% overall yield from allyl alcohol in this fashion. 

Protonated allyl alcohol undergoes an S l-type substitution reaction. 

Dehydrobromination of bromotrifluoropropene affords the more expensive trifluoropropyne [237], which was metallated in situ and trapped with an aldehyde in the TIT group s [238]synthesis of 2,6-dideoxy-6,6,6-trifluorosugars (Eq. 77). Allylic alcohols derived from adducts of this type have been transformed into trifluoromethyl lactones via [3,3] -Claisen rearrangements and subsequent iodolactonisation [239]. Relatively weak bases such as hydroxide anion can be used to perform the dehydrobromination and when the alkyne is generated in the presence of nucleophilic species, addition usually follows. Trifluoromethyl enol ethers were prepared (stereoselectively) in this way (Eq. 78) the key intermediate is presumably a transient vinyl carbanion which protonates before defluorination can occur [240]. Palladium(II)-catalysed alkenylation or aryla-tion then proceeds [241]. 

Enantioselective deprotonation.2 The rearrangement of epoxides to allylic alcohols by lithium dialkylamides involves removal of the proton syn to the oxygen.3 When a chiral lithium amide is used with cyclohexene oxide, the optical yield of the resulting allylic alcohol is 3-31%, the highest yield being obtained with 1. 

The double bond shift is explained in terms of a kinetically controlled protonation of the anion formed in an ECE process the anion would have the highest negative charge a to the ester group. Such a double bond shift seems to be rather general also for the indirect reduction of allyl alcohols.388... 

---