Amides lithium enolates

The kinetic aldol diastereoselection observed for a range of amide lithium enolates is reported in Table 12. It is significant that the... 

SCHEME 61. Solid-state aggregation of amide lithium enolates (A) tetrasolvated dimer [(C-C7H12C(OLi)NMe2)2, 4 THF]241 (B) intramolecular chelated [(PhC(OLi)=NPr- )6, 2 THF]243... 

A set of seven amide lithium enolates has been analyzed by the same techniques261. The pK measured for the corresponding ion-pairs were found to be in the 20s range in THF at 25 °C, a value increasing under the influence of intramolecular chelation. All these enolates were found essentially monomeric when in 10 6 -10 3 M solution in the same solvent. 

Amide and imide enolates. Scheme 5.31 illustrates several examples of asymmetric Michael additions of chiral amide and imide enolates. Yamaguchi [163] investigated the addition of amide lithium enolates to -ethyl crotonate, but found no consistent topicity trend for achiral amides. The three chiral amides tested are illustrated in Scheme 5.31a-c. The highest diastereoselectivity found was with the C2-symmetric amide shown in Scheme 5.3Ic. Evans s imides, as their titanium enolates, afforded the results shown in Scheme 5.31d and e [164,165]. The yields and selectivities for the reaction with acrylates and vinyl ketones are excellent, but the reaction is limited to P-unsubstituted Michael acceptors P-substituted esters and nitriles do not react, and 3-substituted enones add with no selectivity [165]. 

The formation of the above anions ("enolate type) depend on equilibria between the carbon compounds, the base, and the solvent. To ensure a substantial concentration of the anionic synthons in solution the pA" of both the conjugated acid of the base and of the solvent must be higher than the pAT -value of the carbon compound. Alkali hydroxides in water (p/T, 16), alkoxides in the corresponding alcohols (pAT, 20), sodium amide in liquid ammonia (pATj 35), dimsyl sodium in dimethyl sulfoxide (pAT, = 35), sodium hydride, lithium amides, or lithium alkyls in ether or hydrocarbon solvents (pAT, > 40) are common combinations used in synthesis. Sometimes the bases (e.g. methoxides, amides, lithium alkyls) react as nucleophiles, in other words they do not abstract a proton, but their anion undergoes addition and substitution reactions with the carbon compound. If such is the case, sterically hindered bases are employed. A few examples are given below (H.O. House, 1972 I. Kuwajima, 1976). 

A partial explanation of the above findings must lie in the known ease of addition of nucleophilic reagents to the conjugated double bond of pregn-16-en-20-ones. The amide ion that is a by-product of the reduction probably adds to a portion of the unreduced pregn-16-en-20-one giving the lithium enolate of amino ketone (74). This enolate may well be relatively stable at — 33° and would be protonated to the free 16-amino-20-one during work-up... 

An isolated acetoxyl function would be expected to be converted into the alkoxide of the corresponding steroidal alcohol in the course of a metal-ammonia reduction. Curiously, this conversion is not complete, even in the presence of excess metal. When a completely deacetylated product is desired, the crude reduction product is commonly hydrolyzed with alkali. This incomplete reduction of an acetoxyl function does not appear to interfere with a desired reduction elsewhere in a molecule, but the amount of metal to be consumed by the ester must be known in order to calculate the quantity of reducing agent to be used. In several cases, an isolated acetoxyl group appears to consume approximately 2 g-atoms of lithium, even though a portion of the acetate remains unreduced. Presumably, the unchanged acetate escapes reduction because of precipitation of the steroid from solution or because of conversion of the acetate function to its lithium enolate by lithium amide. 

In recent years this simple picture has been completely transformed and it is now recognized that the alkali metals have a rich and extremely varied coordination chemistry which frequently transcends even that of the transition metals. The efflorescence is due to several factors such as the emerging molecular chemistry of lithium in particular, the imaginative use of bulky ligands, the burgeoning numbers of metal amides, alkoxides, enolates and organometallic compounds, and the exploitation of multidentate... 

When a cold (-78 °C) solution of the lithium enolate derived from amide 6 is treated successively with a,/ -unsaturated ester 7 and homogeranyl iodide 8, intermediate 9 is produced in 87% yield (see Scheme 2). All of the carbon atoms that will constitute the complex pentacyclic framework of 1 are introduced in this one-pot operation. After some careful experimentation, a three-step reaction sequence was found to be necessary to accomplish the conversion of both the amide and methyl ester functions to aldehyde groups. Thus, a complete reduction of the methyl ester with diisobutylalu-minum hydride (Dibal-H) furnishes hydroxy amide 10 which is then hydrolyzed with potassium hydroxide in aqueous ethanol. After acidification of the saponification mixture, a 1 1 mixture of diastereomeric 5-lactones 11 is obtained in quantitative yield. Under the harsh conditions required to achieve the hydrolysis of the amide in 10, the stereogenic center bearing the benzyloxypropyl side chain epimerized. Nevertheless, this seemingly unfortunate circumstance is ultimately of no consequence because this carbon will eventually become part of the planar azadiene. 

A limited number of examples only exist for the Michael addition of lithium enolates to a,)3-unsaturated amides high stereocontrol was observed in only a few cases62-67,379. 

Closely related to enolate additions to enones is the diastereoselective 1,4-addition of lithium enolates of esters, thioesters and amides to a,/ -unsaturated esters. These reactions provide syn-or ar /-2,3-disubstituted glutarates (pentanedioates). 

The Michael addition of lithium enolates of amides, which have preferentially the Z geometry, under kinetically controlled conditions to a,/i-unsaturated esters provides a highly... 

A variety of chiral amides as well as oxazolidones388 and imidazolidones389,390 may easily be prepared from amino alcohols that are derived from amino acids391 392. The addition of the lithium enolates of these amides under kinetically controlled conditions to a,/i-unsaturated esters yields optically active pentanedioates. Both syn- and //-5-amino-5-oxopcntanoates may be obtained with good diastereomeric ratios192. 

Unless a proton donor is added, the lithium-ammonia reduction of an cnone leads to the lithium enolate and lithium amide. The latter is a sufficiently strong base to rapidly convert the mono-alkylated ketone into its enolate, which can be further alkylated. The function of the... 

Enantioselective deprotonation of prochiral 4-alkylcyclohexanones using certain lithium amide bases derived from chiral amines such as (1) has been shown (73) to generate chiral lithium enolates, which can be trapped and used further as the corresponding trimethylsilyl enol ethers trapping was achieved using Corey s internal quench described above. 

Lithium enolates of carboxylic acids such as phenylacetic acid or of amides such as N-methyl-N-phenylvaleric acid amide 1974 are oxidized by BTSP 1949 to a-hydroxy acids, which are isolated after esterification, e.g., to 1973, or to a-hydroxyamides such as 1975 [155] (Scheme 12.43) (cf. also the formation of 3-hydroxybutyrolactam 1962). 

Ester enolates are somewhat less stable than ketone enolates because of the potential for elimination of alkoxide. The sodium and potassium enolates are rather unstable, but Rathke and co-workers found that the lithium enolates can be generated at -78° C.69 Alkylations of simple esters require a strong base because relatively weak bases such as alkoxides promote condensation reactions (see Section 2.3.1). The successful formation of ester enolates typically involves an amide base, usually LDA or LiHDMS, at low temperature.70 The resulting enolates can be successfully alkylated with alkyl bromides or iodides. HMPA is sometimes added to accelerate the alkylation reaction. 

As with the above pyrrolidine, proline-type chiral auxiliaries also show different behaviors toward zirconium or lithium enolate mediated aldol reactions. Evans found that lithium enolates derived from prolinol amides exhibit excellent diastereofacial selectivities in alkylation reactions (see Section 2.2.32), while the lithium enolates of proline amides are unsuccessful in aldol condensations. Effective chiral reagents were zirconium enolates, which can be obtained from the corresponding lithium enolates via metal exchange with Cp2ZrCl2. For example, excellent levels of asymmetric induction in the aldol process with synj anti selectivity of 96-98% and diastereofacial selectivity of 50-200 116a can be achieved in the Zr-enolate-mediated aldol reaction (see Scheme 3-10). 

TABLE 4-20. Asymmetric Oxidation of Lithium Enolates and Amides Using ( + )-147 as the Oxidant... 

Diastereoselective hydroxylation of enolates of chiral amides. Davis and coworkers1 have examined the asymmetric hydroxylation of the tetrasubstituted enolates of a chiral amide (2) with these chiral camphoryloxaziridines. Oxidation of the lithium enolate of 2 with (+ )-l proceeds with only moderate diastereoselectivity (48.4% de), which is somewhat less than that observed on hydroxylation with the achiral 2-(phenylsulfonyl)-3-phenyloxaziridine (4). Oxidation of the enolate of 2... 

Detailed investigations indicate that the enolization process (LDA, THF) affords enolates 37 and 38 with at/east 97% (Z)-stereoselection. Related observations have recently been reported on the stereoselective enolization of dialkylthioamides (38). In this latter study, the Ireland-Claisen strategy (34) was employed to assign enolate geometry. Table 10 summarizes the enolization stereo selection that has been observed for both esters and amides with LDA. Complementary kinetic enolization ratios for ketonic substrates are included in Table 7. Recent studies on the role of base structure and solvent are now beginning to appear in the literature (39,40), and the Ireland enolization model for lithium amide bases has been widely accepted, A tabular survey of the influence of the ester moiety (ORj) on a range of aldol condensations via the lithium enolates is provided in Table 11 (eq. [24]). Enolate ratios for some of the condensations illustrated may be found in Table 10. It is apparent from these data that ( )-enolates derived from alkyl propionates (Rj = CH3, t-C4H9) exhibit low aldol stereoselectivity. In contrast, the enolates derived from alkoxyalkyl esters (Rj = CHjOR ) exhibit 10 1 threo diastereo-... 

The reactivity of lithium enolates has been explored in a theoretical study of the isomers of C2H30Li, such as the lithium enolate, the acyl lithium, and the a-lithio enol. Imides containing a chiral 2-oxazolidine have been employed for enantioselective protonation of prochiral enolates.A degree of kinetic control of the product E/Z-enolate ratio has been reported for the lithiation of 3,3-diphenylpropiomesitylene, using lithium amides/alkyls. " °... 

By contrast, lithium enolates derived from tertiary amides do react with oxiranes The diastereoselectivity in the reaction of simple amide enolates with terminal oxiranes has been addressed and found to be low (Scheme 45). The chiral bicyclic amide enolate 99 reacts with a good diastereoselectivity with ethylene oxide . The reaction of the chiral amide enolate 100 with the chiral oxiranes 101 and 102 occurs with a good diastereoselectivity (in the matched case ) interestingly, the stereochemical course is opposite to the one observed with alkyl iodides. The same reversal is found in the reaction of the amide enolate 103. By contrast, this reversal in diastereoselectivity compared to alkyl iodides was not found in the reaction of the hthium enolate 104 with the chiral oxiranes 105 and 106 °. It should be noted that a strong matched/mismatched effect occurs for enolates 100 and 103 with chiral oxiranes, and excellent diastereoselec-tivities can be achieved. 

The feasibility of a deprotonation of cyclohexanone derivatives bearing a chiral heterocyclic substituent in the 4-position with the C2-symmetric base lithium bis[(/f)-l-phenylethyl]amide with internal quenching of the lithium enolate formed with chlorotrimethylsilane is shown in entries 32 and 33 of Table 229,25a. The silyl enol ethers are obtained in a diastereomeric ratio of 79.5 20.5. By using lithium bis[(1S)-l-phenylethyl]amide the two diastereomers are formed in a ratio of 20 80 indicating that the influence of the chirality of the substituent is negligible. 

Reaction of the chiral lithium enolate of meso-2,6-dimethylcyclohexanone (6), generated by deprotonation with (R)-l-phenylethylamine and (/ )-camphor/(R)-l-phenylethylaniine derived chiral lithium amides (Table 1, entries 17 and 64) with 3-bromopropene, leads to homoallyl ketones of opposite absolute configuration in acceptable yield with poor to modest enantiomeric excess14, which can be determined directly by H-NMR spectroscopy in the presence of tris [3-(heptafluorohydroxymethylene)-D-camphorato]europium(III) [Eu(hfc)3]. 

Deprotonation of tropinone (1) with various chiral lithium amides and external quenching of the lithium enolate with benzaldehyde gives the aldol product 2 in moderate to good yield with moderate enantiomeric excess but high diastcrcosclcctivity. The aldol product 2 is a single diastereomer with the relative configuration as depicted, but of unknown absolute configuration19. Recrystallization of the aldol product leads to enantiomerically pure material. 

Not surprinsingly, the aldol addition of the lithium enolates derived from these systems proved to be unsatisfactory. However, the derived zirkonium enolates in these and related systems have proven to be exceptional 176). The amides (171) and (172), each of which is readily derived from (S)-proline and (S)-valine respectively, exhibit good stereoselectivity with a range of aldehydes. The optical purity of the P-hydroxy amides (173) was very good (>95% e.e.). However, this method has a limitation which has been associated with the acidic conditions that are required to hydrolize these chiral amides (173) to their derived carboxylic acids (174). While... 

In contrast, aldol condensation with (Z)- and (E)-chlorobis(eyclopenladienyl)-/irconium enolates results in frj7/iro-diastcrcoselcction regardless of the geometry of the enolate. -3 These enolates are prepared from lithium enolates by metal exchange with Cp,ZrCU at —78°. The effect is particularly marked with amide enolates (equation II). 

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