Anionic rearrangement homoenolate equivalents

Trimethylsiloxy cyanohydrins (9) derived from an a,3-unsaturatied aldehyde form ambident anions (9a) on deprotonation. The latter can react with electrophiles at the a-position as an acyl anion equivalent (at -78 C) or at the -y-position as a homoenolate equivalent (at 0 C). The lithium salt of (9) reacts exclusively at the a-position with aldehydes and ketones. The initial kinetic product (10) formed at -78 C undergoes an intramolecular 1,4-silyl rearrangement at higher temperature to give (11). Thus the initial kinetic product is trapped and only products resulting from a-attack are observed (see Scheme 11). The a-hydroxyenones (12), -y-lactones (13) and a-trimethylsiloxyenones (11) formed are useful precursors to cyclopentenones and the overall reaction sequence constitutes a three-carbon annelation procedure. 

There are two main synthetic applications where the reaction of an allyl system with electrophiles is accompanied by an allylic rearrangement. One consists of the use of heteroatom-substituted allylic anions as homoenolate anion equivalents and the other represents a synthetically valuable alternative to the aldol reaction by addition of allyl metal compounds to aldehydes. 

Homoenolate equivalents (d reagents) are less conunon than nucleophilic acyl equivalents. The uses of 1-trimethylsilylallyl alcohols as effective homoenolate equivalents have been discussed. y-Alkylation of the trimethylsilyloxy-stabil-ized allylic anion formed by Brook rearrangement leads to the (isolable) tri-methylsilylenol ether (18) (Scheme 16). y-Alkylation of the functionalized ally-loxy-carbanion (19) has been reported. ... 

On the other hand the inherent a-selectivity of allylsulfur carbanions can sometimes be transformed to a y-reactivity by a sigmatropic rearrangement, earning in addition the stereoselectivity typical for such reactions (see Section 4.S.2.3). Due to their significance in synthesis a lot of work has been done on reactions of heteroatom-substituted allyl anions with special emphasis on their use as homoenolate anion equivalents. The more recent developments, with the possibility of introducing diastereoselectivity, will be discussed later in Section 4.S.3.2.I. 

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