Azomethine heterocycles

Direct observation of zwitterionic intermediates has been made by the addition of azomethine heterocycles, such as pyridine to ketenes7 In these cases, the cyclization of the zwitterion to a 3-lactam is energetically unfavorable because of the loss of aromaticity of the pyridine ring that would result. 

Despite the inconveniences, a certain number of studies have been carried out, particularly concerning dyes containing azomethine groups. Such as hydrazones, pyrazolones, formazans, and selenazoles quinoids. Saturated heterocycles, that is, selenazolines and selenazolidines. have also been tackled. Selenium derivatives for pharmacological or physiological applications are little developed by comparison with their thiazole homologs. 

Azomethine ylides are also frequently obtained by ring opening of aziridines, and the analogous carbonyl ylides from oxiranes. These aspects are dealt with in Section 3.03.5.1. A variety of five-membered heterocycles can also function as masked 1,3-dipoles and this aspect is considered in Section 3.03.5.2. 

As the sp nitrogen atom in many heterocycles can be alkylated and aminated, the construction of an azomethine ylide or azomethine imine dipole is readily attainable as shown in Scheme 13. These ylides are very reactive and undergo cycloaddition with a... 

Scheme 13 Azomethine ylides and azomethine imines incorporated in heterocyclic systems...

Use of mesoionic ring systems for the synthesis of five-membered heterocycles with two or more heteroatoms is relatively restricted because of the few readily accessible systems containing two heteroatoms in the 1,3-dipole. They are particularly suited for the unambiguous synthesis of pyrazoles as the azomethine imine is contained as a masked 1,3-dipole in the sydnone system. An attractive feature of their use is that the precursor to the mesoionic system may be used in the presence of the cyclodehydration agent and the dipolarophile, avoiding the necessity for isolating the mesoionic system. 

Stable heterocyclic five-member azomethine imines, azolium fV-imides, tria-zolium and pyrazolidinium ylides 98H(49)587. 

Besides complexes of thiosemicarbazones prepared from nitrogen heterocycles, iron(III) complexes of both 2-formylthiophene thiosemicarbazone, 26, and 2-acetylthiophene thiosemicarbazone, 27, have been isolated [155]. Low spin, distorted octahedral complexes of stoichiometry [Fe(26)2A2]A (A = Cl, Br, SCN) were found to be 1 1 electrolytes in nitromethane. Low spin Fe(27)3A3 (A = Cl, Br, SCN) complexes were also isolated, but their insolubility in organic solvents did not allow molar conductivity measurements. Infrared speetra indicate coordination of both via the azomethine nitrogen and thione sulfur, but not the thiophene sulfur. The thiocyanate complexes have spectral bands at 2065, 770 and 470 cm consistent with N-bonded thiocyanato ligands, but v(FeCl) and v(FeBr) were not assigned due to the large number of bands found in the spectra of the two ligands. 

In addition to nitrones, azomethine ylides are also valuable 1,3-dipoles for five-membered heterocycles [415], which have found useful applications in the synthesis of for example, alkaloids [416]. Again, the groups of both Grigg [417] and Risch [418] have contributed to this field. As reported by the latter group, the treatment of secondary amines 2-824 with benzaldehyde and an appropriate dipolarophile leads to the formation of either substituted pyrrolidines 2-823, 2-825 and 2-826 or oxa-zolidines 2-828 with the 1,3-dipole 2-827 as intermediate (Scheme 2.184). However, the yields and the diastereoselectivities are not always satisfactory. 

Dipolar addition to nitroalkenes provides a useful strategy for synthesis of various heterocycles. The [3+2] reaction of azomethine ylides and alkenes is one of the most useful methods for the preparation of pyrolines. Stereocontrolled synthesis of highly substituted proline esters via [3+2] cycloaddition between IV-methylated azomethine ylides and nitroalkenes has been reported.147 The stereochemistry of 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of azomethine ylides derived from aromatic aldehydes and L-proline alkyl esters with various nitroalkenes has been reported. Cyclic and acyclic nitroalkenes add to the anti form of the ylide in a highly regioselective manner to give pyrrolizidine derivatives.148... 

H(65)1889, 2005EJO3553>. Starting dihydro[l,2,4]triazolo[3, 4-4]benzo[l,2,4]triazines 482 readily react with aromatic aldehydes to yield iminium salts 483. These salts treated with a base (e.g., triethylamine) are deprotonated to reactive 1,3-dipolar azomethine imines 484. In contrast to related five-membered heterocycles, these compounds are relatively unstable on storage in the solid form and particularly in solution. Fortunately, this obstacle can be easily circumvented by their in situ preparation and subsequent 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition. These compounds can participate in 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions with both symmetric and nonsymmetric dipolarophiles to give the expected 1,3-cycloadducts in stereoselective manner. Selected examples are given in Scheme 82. 

The regio- and stereochemical outcome of the intermolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of an azomethine ylide generated by the decarboxylative condensation of an isatin with an a-amino acid was unambiguously determined by a single-crystal X-ray study of the spirocyclic heterocycle 49 (R1 =4-Br, R2 = H, X = CH2) <1998TL2235>. 

The 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions to unsaturated carbon-carbon bonds have been known for quite some time and have become an important part of strategies for organic synthesis of many compounds (Smith and March, 2007). The 1,3-dipolar compounds that participate in this reaction include many of those that can be drawn having charged resonance hybrid structures, such as azides, diazoalkanes, nitriles, azomethine ylides, and aziridines, among others. The heterocyclic ring structures formed as the result of this reaction typically are triazoline, triazole, or pyrrolidine derivatives. In all cases, the product is a 5-membered heterocycle that contains components of both reactants and occurs with a reduction in the total bond unsaturation. In addition, this type of cycloaddition reaction can be done using carbon-carbon double bonds or triple bonds (alkynes). 

The thermal hydrazone-azomethine imine isomerization can be easily performed under microwave irradiation in the absence of solvent. The subsequent 1,3-dipolar cydoadditions with electron-defident dipolarophiles occur in only a few minutes to afford the corresponding cycloadducts. The use of pyrazolyl hydrazones 205 leads to valuable compounds, such as bipyrazoles 213, in good yields and this provides a new approach to the preparation of these heterocyclic derivatives [116] (Scheme 9.67). Reactions undertaken with dassical heating under comparable reaction conditions (time and temperature) lead to cydoadduct yields that are considerably lower and, indeed, several dipolarophiles do not react at all. 

Cycloaddition of the azomethine ylides 79, readily produced from 78 which is available in two steps from clavulanic acid, opens a route to a range of P-lactam based heterocycles, e.g. 80, through a regio- and stereo-selective reaction <99JHC1365,00T5579>. 

N1)-Fused heterocycles have been found of major application as photographic materials. Azomethine dyes are used in conventional three-color (yellow, magenta, and cyan) photographic imaging <1998JAP10264541,... 

Most of the (5,5) (2N2)-fused heterocyclic systems are fully substituted aromatic systems and therefore they do not have any hydrogens attached to the ring. Very little is reported on C-unsubstituted compounds. Methine groups are generally part of a ring azomethine moiety and are either linked to a fusion atom C or N or to a nonfusion atom N or S (Table 1). 

Finally, fully reduced heterocycles have been prepared either from a sequential azomethine imine cycloaddition-palladium-mediated cyclization process <2003T4451>, or from the reaction of A-( l-benzotriazolylalkyU-AyV-disubstitutcd hydrazine with methyl vinyl ether <1997JOC8210>. 

A typical 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition involves the use of azomethine ylides as the reactive species. Ylides are formed in situ by thermal condensation of a-amino acids and aldehydes, which then react to form the pyrrolidine-CNT system [32]. The R substituent on the 5-membered heterocycle attached to the SWCNT can be varied by the selection of the amino acid and the aldehyde, giving access to a range of different functional groups on the nanotube sidewalls. 

With heterocycles containing an sp--nitrogen atom, a totally different problem can occur, namely nucleophilic addition of the base to the azo-methine (C=N) bond. The use of very sterically hindered bases such as lithium tetramethylpiperidide (LiTMP) can prevent this type of addition in certain cases, but bases of this sort tend to be expensive and not suitable for general use. However, two different approaches to overcoming the problem of azomethine addition have been developed over the years, both relying on the fact that the addition is temperature dependent, and that by enabling metalation reactions to be performed at low temperatures, the desired carbanion formation can often be achieved. 

This list shows that the five-membered meso-ionic heterocycles related to the azomethine imine 1,3-dipole (43) comprise the largest group and that meso-ionic compounds related to the nitrosoimines (39), thionitrosoimines (41), and carbonyl imines (42) are not yet known. Clearly synthetic challenges still exist in the field of meso-ionic compounds. 

During studies on the use of amidines as azomethine ylide sources, Jones et al. (67-69) reported in a series of papers the application of their general strategy to an asymmetric process. Quatemization of the dihydroimidazole 214 with an a-halo ester followed by DBU-induced ylide formation and subsequent cyclization furnished a range of nitrogen heterocycles in a one pot generation and cyclization protocol (70) (Scheme 3.73). 

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