Azomethine ylids stereoselectivity

In spite of the efficiency of lithium fluoride to initiate formation of an azomethine ylid from aminomethylethers, sonication of the reaction medium proved useful. It is likely that sonication improves the solubility of lithium fluoride in the solvent. This is illustrated by the following two examples. Chiral pyrrolidinylfuranones are obtained from 5-(S)-5-menthyloxy-4-vinylfuran-2(5H)-one. Sonication increases the yield from 55 to 88%, but does not change the stereoselectivity.440... 

Finally, enantiomerically pure sulfinimines have also been used as precursors of chiral imidazolidines by 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition with azomethine ylids [181]. Reactions of different arylsulfinimines 245 with dipoles 246 are highly stereoselective, mainly affording diastereoisomer 247 (absolute configuration unequivocally established by X-ray studies), which was readily transformed into vicinal diamine 248 (Scheme 111). 

The Stereoselectivity of 1,3-Dipolar Cycloadditions. There is no endo mle for 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions like that for Diels-Alder reactions. Stereoselectivity, more often than not, is low, as shown by the reactions of C,/V-diphenylnitrone—both regioisomers 6.238 and 6.239 (R=C02Et) from the reaction with ethyl acrylate are mixtures of exo and endo isomers, only a little in favour of the exo product. Similarly, the reactions of methyl crotonate with nitrones favour the exo product 6.242 over the endo 6.243. In contrast, other reactions are endo selective, as in the cycloaddition 6.244 of an azomethine ylid to dimethyl maleate giving largely the endo adduct 6.245. 

In contrast, other reactions are endo selective, as in the cycloaddition 6.354 of an azomethine ylid to dimethyl maleate giving largely (80 20) the endo adduct endo-6.355.869,870 Thus the stereoselectivity depends in a not always predictable way upon the dipole, the dipolarophile and their substituents, in contrast to Diels-Alder reactions, which more often than not obey the endo rule. It is advisable, when planning a synthesis, to look up close analogies before relying upon the exo or endo stereoselectivity of a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition. 

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