Arylzinc preparation

Chiral amino alcohols derived from BINAP have been employed as catalysts in a highly enantioselective addition of arylzincs (prepared in situ) to aldehydes.230... 

Using this exchange reaction, some functionalizations of aryl halides were examined. As an example of 1,2-addition to a carbonyl group, the arylzinc prepared from 4-iodobenzoate and diethylzinc in the presence of Bu-P4 base in THF was reacted with benzaldehyde to give the benzhydrol derivative in 78% yield. As for the 1,4-addition reaction, the arylzinc prepared similarly in THF was reacted with chalcone and the 1,4-adduct was obtained in 71% yield under copper-free reaction conditions. Allylation was also carried out in the absence of copper additive, and allylbenzoate was obtained in 98% yield. It has been reported that arylzinc compounds are inert to 1,4-addition and allylation reaction in the absence of additives and conventionally the employment of copper species has been widely used. However, in this case the Bu-P4 base is considered to promote the reactivity of arylzinc compounds toward electrophiles [59] (Scheme 5.38). 

Notably, the presence of iPrI in the reaction medium (generated during the arylzinc preparation or included as an additive) accelerates the cross-coupling reaction, possibly by radical catalysis ]130]. Aromatic and heteroaromatic bromides react with diarylzinc reagents at 25 °C within minutes to yield the corresponding biaryl compounds, as shown with the preparation of 144 from 142 with 143. 

The use of expensive and unstable ZnPli2 in the preparation of chiral di-arylmethanol derivatives, with electronically and sterically similar aryl rings, made this approach less attractive for the enantioselective synthesis. In order to avoid this inconvenience, other alternative preparations of arylzinc reagents were evaluated.As a first choice, Yus et al. proposed the use of arylboronic adds as a viable source of phenyl (Scheme 4.19). Thus, the reaction of various boronic acids with an excess of ZnEt2 at 70 °C gave the corresponding arylzinc intermediates (probably aryl(ethyl)zincs), which were trapped by reaction with dif-... 

The aryl bromide 40, prepared from cross-coupling between 1,2-dibromobenzene and (trimethylsilyl)acetylene, was converted to the corresponding arylzinc halide 41a and arylboronic acid 41b for subsequent coupling with the haloallenes 42 to produce the benzannulated enyne-allene 43 in -40% yield (Scheme 20.10) [38]. Desilylation with tetrabutylammonium fluoride (TBAF) then afforded 44 in 67% yield. 

Similarly, the benzannulated enyne-allenes 172 and 173 were prepared from the propargylic acetates 171 by cuprate addition or by Pd-catalyzed addition of arylzinc chloride (Scheme 20.35) [49]. The presence of a butyl group and a p-anisyl group at the allenic terminus of 173a and 173b permits competition between a formal ene reaction and a formal Diels-Alder reaction leading to 174 and 175, respectively. 

The functionalized arylzinc reagents are best prepared either starting from an aryllithium obtained by halogen-lithium exchange followed by a low-temperature (-80°C) transmetalation with ZnBrj or by performing an iodine-magnesium exchange reaction. The latter reaction tolerates temperatures up to -30°C and is more convenient for industrial applications. ... 

An important issue was the fact that isolated diphenylzinc had to be used in this protocol and that samples of this arylzinc reagent prepared in situ (and presumably still containing lithium or magnesium salts) led to products with lower enantioselectivities. Thus, although pure diphenylzinc was commercially available, its high price was expected to hamper large-scale applications of this catalyzed asymmetric phenyl transfer process [36, 37]. 

So far, attempts to expand the substrate scope further by modifying the aryl transfer agent have remained unsuccessful. Thus, imine addition reactions with arylzinc species other than the one prepared in situ by mixing diphenylzinc and diethylzinc still deserve attention, and will be developed in the near future. 

Grignard reagents and diazonium zinc chloride double salts have been used to prepare azo compounds. The reaction of arylzinc chloride with a diazonium salt has also been used. By this means, mixed aromatic-aliphatic azo compounds have been prepared. 

SCHEME 5. Preparation and uses of functionalized arylzinc bromides using Rieke zinc... 

The formation of arylzinc reagents can also be accomplished by using electrochemical methods. With a sacrificial zinc anode and in the presence of nickel 2,2-bipyridyl, polyfunctional zinc reagents of type 36 can be prepared in excellent yields (Scheme 14) . An electrochemical conversion of aryl halides to arylzinc compounds can also be achieved by a cobalt catalysis in DMF/pyridine mixture . The mechanism of this reaction has been carefully studied . This method can also be applied to heterocyclic compounds such as 2- or 3-chloropyridine and 2- or 3-bromothiophenes . Zinc can also be elec-trochemically activated and a mixture of zinc metal and small amounts of zinc formed by electroreduction of zinc halides are very reactive toward a-bromoesters and allylic or benzylic bromides . ... 

SCHEME 14. Electrochemical preparation of polyfunctional arylzinc hahdes... 

Interestingly, low-valent cobalt species obtained by the in situ reduction of CoBrz with zinc catalyze the reaction of aryl bromides with zinc dust. The reaction allows the preparation of a range of functionalized arylzinc halides such as 44 (Scheme 19)". ... 

SCHEME 28. Preparation and uses of arylzinc halides via an I/Mg exchange... 

SCHEME 53. Preparation and uses of arylzincates via an I/Zn exchange reaction... 

In contrast to the extensive investigation of fluorovinylzinc reagents and their synthetic utility, only limited literature exists on fluorinated arylzinc reagents. Bis(pentafluorophenyl) zinc can be prepared by the reaction of zinc chloride with either pentafluorophenyllithium or pentafluorophenylmagnesium bromide (equation 70)64,65. An alternative route is via decarboxylation of zinc bis(pentafluorobenzoate) (equation 71)65. 

The electrochemical analysis allowed the determination of kinetic constants for this reaction46. Thus, in the presence of bromobenzene, the rate constant for the oxidative addition was found to be equal to about 70 M 1 s 1. The a-arylnickel complexes are unstable, except those obtained from o-tolyl or mesityl bromide as starting substrates. In these particular cases, the arylnickel complexes can be prepared by electrolysis from an ArBr/NiBr2(bpy) equimolar ratio. However, the exhaustive electrolysis of an aromatic iodide in the presence of ZnBr2, in DMF and at —1.4 V/SCE, leads to the corresponding arylzinc compound but the yield remains low (<20%). Indeed, the aryl iodide is mainly converted to ArH according to, very likely, a radical process (Scheme 11). 

Reactivity of eiectrochemicaiiy prepared arylzinc compounds via a nickel catalysis... 

Arylzinc species prepared via the sacrificial anode process and from aryl halides in the presence of a nickel 2,2 -bipyridine, as already reported in Section . .1, were found totally unreactive towards common electrophiles such as aldehydes, carboxylic anhydrides or activated alkyl halides. However, they react with some electrophiles when they are activated by the presence of a catalytic amount of copper salts (10 mol% Cul) together with tetramethylethylene diamine (1MEDA) as described by Knochel and Singer on the ArZnX—CuCN metal exchange47 or when the reaction is catalyzed by palladium complex. 

TABLE 6. Preparation of arylzinc compounds substituted by electron-withdrawing groups... 

Under these standard reaction conditions, the acetonitrile/pyridine mixture can replace the DMF/pyridine one. This solvent mixture is also quite convenient for running the preparation of arylzinc halides. Yields are good to excellent (60-90%) and even higher than those obtained in DMF. However, with bromophenol, no organozinc species was formed in acetonitrile as observed in DMF. The formation of arylzinc species is also effective in a mixture of solvents of acetonitrile-DMF-pyridine (8/1/1) in the presence of C0CI2 (13%) as the catalyst precursor and zinc bromide (30%). This method has also been applied to the formation of organozinc halides from alkyl and alkenyl halides. So far, only low yields have been obtained using the standard reaction conditions in DMF-pyridine. Results are reported in Table 8. 

TABLE 8. Preparation of arylzinc halides from alkyl and alkenyl halides... 

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