Amine-Catalyzed Condensation Reactions

The carbon nucleophiles in amine-catalyzed reaction conditions are usually rather acidic compounds containing two electron-attracting substituents. Malonic esters, cyanoacetic esters, and cyanoacetamide are examples of compoimds which undergo condensation reactions under Knoevenagel conditions.Nitroalkanes are also effective nucleophilic reactants. The single nitro group sufficiently activates the a hydrogens to permit deprotonation under the weakly basic conditions. Usually, the product that is isolated is 

Iminium ions are intermediates in a group of reactions which form a,)8-unsaturated compounds having structures corresponding to those formed by mixed aldol condensations followed by dehydration. These reactions are catalyzed by amines or buffer systems containing an amine and an acid and are referred to as Knoevenagel condensations.  

The general mechanism is believed to involve iminium ions as the active electrophiles, rather than the amine simply acting as a base for the aldol condensation. Kinetic evidence in support of this mechanism has been developed in the case of condensation of aromatic aldehydes with nitromethane. Knoevenagel condensation conditions frequently involve both an amine and a weak acid. The reactive electrophile is probably the protonated form of the imine, since this is a more reactive electrophile than the corresponding carbonyl compound. 

SECTION 2.2. CONDENSATION REACTIONS OF IMINES AND IMINIUM IONS 

ArCHNHC H - ArCH NHC Hg - ArCH=CHN02 CH2NO2 H-CHN02 

A relatively acidic proton in the potential nucleophile is important for two reasons. First, it permits weak bases, such as amines, to provide a sufficient concentration of the enolate for reaction. A highly acidic proton also facilitates the elimination step which drives the reaction to completion. 

ArCH=NC4H9 — ArCHNHC4H9 — ArCH- -NHC4H9 — - ArCH=CHN02 

Malonic acid or cyanoacetic acid can also be used as the nucleophile. With malonic acid or cyanoacetic acid as reactants, the products usually undergo decarboxylation. This may occur as a concerted fragmentation of the adduct.214 

Decarboxylative condensations of this type are sometimes carried out in pyridine, which cannot form an imine intermediate, but has been shown to catalyze the decarboxylation of arylidene malonic acids.215 The decarboxylation occurs by concerted decomposition of the adduct of pyridine to the a, 3-unsaturated diacid. 

Reactions of Carbon Nucleophiles with Carbonyl Compounds 

ArCH=NC4H9 — - ArCHNHC4H9 — ArCH—NHC4H9 — - ArCH=CHN02 

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Scheme 2.13. Amine-Catalyzed Condensation Reactions of the Knoevenagel Type...

Although aminocatalysis of the aldol reaction via enamine intermediates is an important enzymatic strategy and several bioorganic studies of the subject have appeared, applications in preparative organic synthesis, particularly in intermolecular aldol addition reactions, have been published only sporadically. Despite the often-used Mukaiyama-aldol reaction of enol ethers and Stork s vell-developed enamine chemistry [37, 38], aldolizations of preformed enamines are rare. One report describes Le vis acid-catalyzed aldolizations of preformed enamines vith aldehydes that furnish aldol addition products [39]. Aldol condensation reactions of preformed enamines vith aldehydes have also been described [40]. Only enamine-catalytic aldolizations, vhich are primary and secondary amine-catalyzed aldol reactions, vill be discussed in this chapter, ho vever. 

Clerici and Porta reported that phenyl, acetyl and methyl radicals add to the Ca atom of the iminium ion, PhN+Me=CHMe, formed in situ by the titanium-catalyzed condensation of /V-methylanilinc with acetaldehyde to give PhNMeCHMePh, PhNMeCHMeAc, and PhNMeCHMe2 in 80% overall yield.83 Recently, Miyabe and co-workers studied the addition of various alkyl radicals to imine derivatives. Alkyl radicals generated from alkyl iodide and triethylborane were added to imine derivatives such as oxime ethers, hydrazones, and nitrones in an aqueous medium.84 The reaction also proceeds on solid support.85 A-sulfonylimines are also effective under such reaction conditions.86 Indium is also effective as the mediator (Eq. 11.49).87 A tandem radical addition-cyclization reaction of oxime ether and hydrazone was also developed (Eq. 11.50).88 Li and co-workers reported the synthesis of a-amino acid derivatives and amines via the addition of simple alkyl halides to imines and enamides mediated by zinc in water (Eq. 11.51).89 The zinc-mediated radical reaction of the hydrazone bearing a chiral camphorsultam provided the corresponding alkylated products with good diastereoselectivities that can be converted into enantiomerically pure a-amino acids (Eq. 11.52).90... 

T. Akiyama, J. Takaya, H. Kagoshima, One-Pot Mannich-Type Reaction in Water HBF4 Catalyzed Condensation of Aldehydes, Amines, and Silyl Enolates for the Synthesis of (5-Amino Carbonyl Compounds Synlett. 1999,1426-1428. 

The reaction of an orf/io-ester, e.g., HC(OEt)3, with a secondary bisamine in the presence of an anunonium salt yields imidazolidinium salts (Scheme The necessary secondary diamines can be generated by a classical condensation-reduction sequence or by applying the palladium-catalyzed Buchwald-Hartwig amination." The latter reaction offers convenient access to imidazolidinium salts with chiral backbones starting from chiral diamines, a number of which are commercially available. ... 

Wordy Over the past few years, we have encountered numerous examples of water as the perfect solvent. We observed this first in osmium-catalyzed dihydroxylation reactions and also in nucleophilic ring-opening reactions of epoxides. We also observed this in cycloaddition reactions and in most oxime ether, hydrazone, and aromatic heterocycle condensation processes.Finally, we observed it in formation reactions of an amide from a primary amine and an acid chloride using aqueous Schotten-Baumann conditions. ... 

Reactions involving the [4 + 1 + 1] principle, an example of which is shown in equation (136), are rather uncommon and of strictly limited utility [3 + 2 + 1] and [2 + 2 + 2] processes, on th,e other hand, are well known. Representative [3 + 2+1] three-bond formation processes are given in equations (137)—(141), from which it can be seen that the common situation is where ammonia, a substituted amine or formamide constitutes the one-atom fragment. Many [2 + 2 + 2] atom fragment syntheses are known and some are familiar reactions. Thus, the cobalt(I)-catalyzed condensation of nitriles and isocyanates with alkynes gives pyridines and 2-pyridones, often in excellent yield (e.g. equation 142), while the cyclotrimerizations of nitriles, imidates, isocyanates, etc., are well established procedures for the synthesis of 1,3,5-triazine derivatives (e.g. equation 143). Further representative examples are given in equations (144)-(147), and the reader is referred to the monograph chapters for full discussion of these and other [2 + 2 + 2] processes. Examination of the... 

Polycarbonates are prepared commercially by two processes Schotten-Baumann reaction of phosgene (qv) and an aromatic diol in an amine-catalyzed interfacial condensation reaction or via base-catalyzed transesterification of a bisphenol with a monomeric carbonate. Important products are also based on polycarbonate in blends with other materials, copolymers, branched resins, flame-retardant compositions, foams (qv), and other materials (see Flame retardants). Polycarbonate is produced globally by several companies. Total manufacture is over 1 million tons annually. Polycarbonate is also the object of academic research studies, owing to its widespread utility and unusual properties. Interest in polycarbonates has steadily increased since 1984. Over 4500 publications and over 9000 patents have appeared on polycarbonate. Japan has issued 5654 polycarbonate patents since 1984 Europe, 1348 United States, 777 Germany, 623 France, 30 and other countries, 231. 

Ring-constrained analogues 37 of the anti-inflammatory drug, diclofenac, have been prepared by acid-catalyzed condensation of aldehydes (or ethylene ketals of ketones) with 36 (Equation 4) <1998MI201>. This reaction presumably proceeds via intramolecular nucleophilic attack by the carboxylic acid group on an iminium ion intermediate from condensation of the secondary amine. Interestingly, the compounds 37 showed comparable activities to diclofenac in the formalin-induced rat paw edema test. 

Other cyclic monomers have been prepared and polymerized through fast ROP. The main focus has been first on bisphenol A carbonate oligocyclic monomers (Brunelle et al., 1994). The oligocyclic monomers were prepared using an amine-catalyzed reaction of bisphenol A bischloroformate, via an interfacial hydrolysis/condensation reaction that also produces linear oligomers and polymers, depending on the structure and concentration of the tertiary amine (Aquino et al., 1994, Table 2.28). 

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