Barton esters reductive decarboxylation

Barton Esterification Reductive Decarboxylation. O-Acyl thiohydroxamates or Barton esters are useful precursors of carbon-centered radicals via thermolysis or photolysis. Several different methods are available for converting carboxylic acids into Barton esters (eq 1). These reactions generally proceed via the attack of a 2-mercaptopyridine-N-oxide salt on an activated carboxylic acid that has either been preformed (acid chloride, mixed anhydride) or generated in situ (with 1,3-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide or tri-n-butylphosphine + 2,2 -dithiodipyridine-l,r-dioxide). However, HOTT has the distinct advantages of (1) being easy to prepare and handle without the need for any special precautions, (2) facilitates efficient Barton esterification of carboxylic acids, and (3) simplifies subsequent work-up and purifications by avoiding the need to remove by-products like 1,3-dicyclohexylurea. 

Scheme 24. Barton s thiohydroxamate ester chemistry reductive decarboxylation.

The stereoselective total synthesis of (+)-epiquinamide 301 has been achieved starting from the amino acid L-allysine ethylene acetal, which was converted into piperidine 298 by standard protocols. Allylation of 297 via an. V-acyliminium ion gave 298, which underwent RCM to provide 299 and the quinolizidine 300, with the wrong stereochemistry at the C-l stereocenter. This was corrected by mesylation of the alcohol, followed by Sn2 reaction with sodium azide to give 301, which, upon saponification of the methyl ester and decarboxylation through the Barton procedure followed by reduction and N-acylation, gave the desired natural product (Scheme 66) <20050L4005>. 

In most other cases, however, the diene system simply becomes too unreactive to participate in radical chain reactions. Thus, the reductive decarboxylation of ester 7 by Barton-POC ester methodology20 or as the selenoester21 gives the reduced product 8, cleanly without any trace of product in which the diene system has participated in the reaction (equation 4)20-21. 

Conversion of a carboxylic acid to a thiohydroxamate ester, followed by heating the product in the presence of a suitable hydrogen donor such as tri-n-butyltin hydride, produces a reductive decarboxylation. This sequence of reactions is called the Barton decarboxylation reaction and may be used to remove a carboxylic acid and replace it with other functional groups. 

The Barton decarboxylation procedure was used in the total synthesis of (-)-verrucarol by K. Tadano et al. The initially formed thiohydroxamic ester was decarboxylated to leave a methylene radical on the cyclopentyl ring, which was then trapped by molecular oxygen. Reductive work-up in the presence of f-BuSH finally provided the hydroxylated product. ... 

A further use of Barton esters has been described as a path to enol ether radicals. The reaction involves the photochemical decomposition at 355 nm of the derivative (85). As part of an approach to the synthesis of a series of Kopsia alkaloids, the reductive decarboxylation of the derivative (86) was carried out. This involved irradiation of the Barton ester (86a) in the presence of t-BuSH. This affords the product (86b). The photochemical decomposition of the Barton ester (87) provides a path to the silyl derivatives (88). The nature of the trapping agent X is dependent on the conditions under which the reaction is carried out. Thus a variety of derivatives can be obtained using alcohols to afford ethers, or using ethanesulfonyl azide to give azides. The Barton esters (89) undergo the usual photochemical decarboxylation to afford ethenoyloxy radicals. Cyclization within these, in the presence of tributylstannane yields the lactones (90). ... 

Piperidine 141 was synthesized from the Barton-McCombie reaction <75JCSP11574> of 142 which gave the expected amido-ester (96 %) as a 3 2-mixture of diastereomers. The mixture was hydrolyzed to the corresponding carboxylic acid which, upon thermal decarboxylation, gave the desired /V-bcnzyl lactam (85% overall yield) as a single diastereomer whose structure was unequivocally established by a single-crystal X-ray analysis. Reduction of the lactam with LiAlH4 (81%) followed by debenzylation via... 

Decarboxylation of the aliphatic esters of A-hydroxypyridine-2-thione by tributyltin hydride leads to reduction of the radical and the formation of the alkane lacking the carboxyl carbon, as in the Barton-McCombie reaction (Scheme 3.61). 

In some examples, the stereochemistry of radical reactions was controlled by chiral carbohydrate auxiliaries. As a radical counterpart to the ionic conjugate additions discussed above, Garner et al. [169] prepared carbohydrate linked radicals that were reacted with a,P-unsaturated esters. The radical precursor, the carboxylic acid 256, generated by the addition of ( Sj-methyl lactate to tri-O-benzyl-D-glucal and subsequent ester hydrolysis, was decarboxylated by Barton s procedure (Scheme 10.84) [170]. Trapping of the chiral radical 258 with methyl acrylate furnished the saturated ester 259 in 61% yield and with high diastereoselectivity (11 1). The auxiliary caused a preferential addition to the si-facQ of radical 258, probably due to entropic effects. The ester 259 was transformed in acceptable yield to the y-butyrolactone 261 by reductive removal of the thiopyridyl group followed by acid hydrolysis. 

Radical reduction was also shown to be competitive with ring inversion under classical radical-forming conditions (Scheme 20) [28]. Photolysis of thiohydrox-amate ester 4ax at -78 °C generates initially the intermediate radical 2ax after Barton decarboxylation [17], At low thiol concentration (entry 1, 0.1 M t-BuSH), lax completely equilibrates to give a mixture of lax and leq, leading to the observed 3ax 3eq ratio. However, at high thiol concentration (entry 3, 1.0 M t-BuSH), the selectivity is increased to attain non-equilibrium product ratios of 3ax 3eq (compare with entries 1 and 3, Scheme 19). Importantly, when acrylonitrile is present as a radical acceptor, one observes diastereoselective C-C bond formation by nonequilibrium radical processes (Scheme 20). 

Next, alcohol 35 was transformed into 36 by reductive dehydroxylation via the nonisolated intermediate xanthate. Hydrolysis of the ester group in 35 to form 30 was followed by decarboxylation to generate 37 by using an improved Barton s method employed with HOTT (5-(l-oxido-2-pyr-idinyl) 1,1,3,3-tetramethylthiouronium hexafluorophos-phate) [35]. Treatment of 37 with TBAF furnished alcohol, which was converted into the proposed structure of paesslerin A by using scandium-catalyzed acetylation. Unfortunately, comparisons of the H- and C-NMR data of the synthetic compound with those reported for the natural product revealed that the substances are not identical. The 2D-NMR data for synthetic 29 are fiiUy consistent with the structure of the target. The result clearly demonstrates that a revision of the structure of natural paesslerin A is required (Scheme 4.17). 

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