Boron trifluoride rearrangements

The plant bufadienolide scillarenin (500) has been synthesized. The starting material was 15a-hydroxycortexone (501), which was converted into the diketone ketal (502) by cupric acetate oxidation at C(21), followed by selective ketalization and tosylate elimination. Protection at C(3) as the dienol ether, oxiran formation at C(20) with dimethylsulphonium methylide, and regeneration of the C(3)- and C(21)-oxo-groups by acid hydrolysis then provided (503). Selective reaction at C(21) with the sodium salt of diethyl methoxycarbonyl-methylphosphonate, and boron trifluoride rearrangement of the epoxide ring to the aldehydo-unsaturated ester (504), was followed by enol lactonization to the bufadienolide (505). This was converted, in turn, to scillarenin (500) via the 14,15-bromohydrin, by standard reactions. Unsubstituted bufadienolides have also been prepared by the same method. 

The difficultly accessible trans-syn-trans arrangement of the a-b-c ring system present in steroidal antibiotics has now been synthesized. The known enedione (39) was converted into a 6 1 mixture of the desired compound (40) and its isomer (41) by ketalization of the saturated carbonyl, followed by lithium-ammonia reduction and enolate trapping with methyl iodide. After separation, (40) was converted into the tricyclic enedione (42) by standard procedures. The transfused AB-system was then obtained by ketalization, peracid treatment, and boron trifluoride rearrangement of the resulting epoxide to the keto-diketal (43). Removal of the 6-keto-group was performed under mild conditions by a new... 

As catalysts for the Fries rearrangement reaction are for example used aluminum halides, zinc chloride, titanium tetrachloride, boron trifluoride and trifluoromethanesulfonic acid7... 

In acid solution 1-acyl-1//-azepines and alkyl l//-azepine-l-carboxylates undergo rapid aromatization to A-arylcarbamates,115,139,142 whereas 1/Z-azepine-l-carbonitrile suffers quantitative rearrangement and hydrolysis to phenylurea.163 Rearrangement of ethyl l//-azepine-l-carboxylate to ethyl A-phenylcarbamate is also rapid (5 min) and quantitative with boron trifluoride-diethyl ether complex in benzene.245... 

Geometrically defined a/ -epoxysilanes have been shown (6) to undergo a highly stereoselective rearrangement to silyl enol ethers (see also Chapter 15). This rearrangement is catalysed by boron trifluoride etherate, and seems to involved-opening of the epoxysilane, as shown ... 

Carbocation intermediates are involved and the structure and stereochemistry of the product are determined by the factors that govern substituent migration in the carbocation. Clean, high-yield reactions can be expected only where structural or conformational factors promote a selective rearrangement. Boron trifluoride is frequently used... 

Studies reveal an advantage to using boron trifluoride in dichloromethane at reduced temperatures instead of Brpnsted acids in the organosilicon hydride reductions of a number of dialkylbenzyl alcohols.126 129 The use of Brpnsted acids may be unsatisfactory under conditions in which the starting alcohol suffers rapid skeletal rearrangement and elimination upon contact with the acid, and also in which the alcohol does not yield a sufficient concentration of the intermediate carbocation when treated with protic acids.126... 

An example of an alcohol that can undergo rapid skeletal rearrangement is 3,3-dimethyl-2-phenyl-2-butanol (Eq. 29). Attempts to reduce this alcohol in dichloromethane solution with l-naphthyl(phenyl)methylsilane yield only a mixture of the rearranged elimination products 3,3-dimethyl-2-phenyl-l-butene and 2,3-dimethy 1-3-phenyl-1 -butene when trifluoroacetic acid or methanesulfonic acid is used. Use of a 1 1 triflic acid/triflic anhydride mixture with a 50 mol% excess of the silane gives good yields of the unrearranged reduction product 3,3-dimethyl-2-phenylbutane, but also causes extensive decomposition of the silane.126 In contrast, introduction of boron trifluoride gas into a dichloromethane solution of the alcohol and a 10 mol% excess of the silane... 

Very interesting rearrangements of fused bicyclic acetals (243), which occur by the action of boron trifluoride etherate, were found and studied in detail by Chlenov et al. (401) (Scheme 3.161). 

When neighboring-group participation is a feature of the glycosylation reaction, the use of a base in this manner frequently results in the isolation of orthoesters rather than the desired glycosides. In the case of activation by triflic anhydride, it is possible to avoid this problem by simply omitting the base. Alternatively, with more sensitive substrates, the hindered base may be retained and boron trifluoride ethe-rate be added to promote the rearrangement of the orthoester to the glycoside, as in... 

Adducts of type 13, arising from the rearrangement of the allylic intermediate, have never been observed. The product distribution in methanol depends, however, on the reaction conditions. When the addition of XeF2 is carried out in the presence of boron trifluoride as a catalyst, the formation of the complex b has been suggested. This complex would react with 2,3-dimethylbutadiene as a positive oxygen electrophile to give, besides 1,2- and 1,4-difluoro derivatives, 1,4- and 1,2-fluoromethoxy products with a predominance of the anti-Markovnikov adduct (equation 26). 

Another interesting observation in this study is the boron trifluoride etherate-catalyzed rearrangement of tri-ir-methane systems 141 that afford the corresponding cyclopentenes 142. These reactions can be considered as the first examples of tri-ir-methane rearrangements in the ground state. Interestingly, compounds 141 only undergo conventional di-TT-methane reactions on irradiation. The mechanism shown in Scheme 25 is proposed to account for this novel reaction [79]. 

Cyclooctadiene-l-epoxide (139) rearranges on treatment with s-BuLi/(—)-sparteine (11) at —90°C to form (l )-2,5-cyclooctadien-l-ol (140), but when boron trifluoride is added, a carbenoid insertion produces the bicyclo[5.1.0]octa-5-en-2-ol 141 with 11% ee (equation 30). Further examples are found elsewhere . 

A variety of ketoxime ethyl carbonates undergo the Beckmann rearrangement in excellent yields (74-99%), upon treatment with 1 equivalent of boron trifluoride etherate at room temperature (equation 91). 

Boron trifluoride etherate was used in conjunction with the reducing agent borane to rearrange aromatic O-triisopropylsilyl ketoximes to cyclic and acyclic aniline derivatives. The steric hindrance of the substituents on the silicon atom, the size of the aliphatic ring and the presence of alkoxy substituents on the aryl group played important roles in the aniline formation. 

Several other combinations of reagents are possible. Another example is the use of boron trifluoride to induce the rearrangement of 0-sUylated oximes 474 (equation 202). 

This procedure for the acetylation of methyl alkyl ketones to form /3-diketones is a modification5 of an earlier procedure, which used boron trifluoride gas as the catalyst.6 3-n-Butyl-2,4-pentanedione has also been prepared by the acetylation of 2-heptanone catalyzed with boron trifluoride gas,7 by the thermal rearrangement of the enol acetate of 2-heptanone,7 and by the alkylation of the potassium enolate of 2,4-pentanedione with n-butyl bromide.8... 

Similarly, boron trifluoride etherate in hot acetonitrile acts on enone 416 to promote its rearrangement to 417... 

In times past it was thought that indoles already bearing an alkyl substituent at C-3 were further alkylated by direct attack at C-2. However, although 2,3-dialkylindoles are readily formed the reaction still involves attack at C-3. This can be demonstrated by the example in Scheme 7.3, where 3-(4 -hydroxybutyl)indole, containing an isotopic label located at C-T, is treated with boron trifluoride in diethyl ether. Two 1,2,3,4-tetrahy-drocarbazoles (l,2,3,4-tetrahydrodibenzo[6,J)pyrroles) are formed in a ratio of 1 1. These differ only in the position of the label. This result indicates that a 3,3-spiroindoleninium intermediate is formed first, and this then undergoes rearrangement of either bond a or bond b to C-2. As the two bonds a and b are identical, equal amounts of the tetrahydrocarbazoles... 

The transformation of the lanostane keto-epoxide (72) into the cucurbitacin derivative (73) has been achieved with boron trifluoride in acetic anhydride. The presence of the acetic anhydride appears to favour the backbone rearrangement. The structure of (73) was confirmed by correlation with the oxidation product (74) of deoxybryogenin acetate. Two new cucurbitacin glycosides, arvenins 1 (75) and II (76) from Anagallis arvensis, have been reported. ... 

Methyl trisnorshionanoate (126) has been synthesized from friedelan-19a-ol (127) via the ring-contracted intermediate (128) and the trisnor-ketone (129). Irradiation of (129) in methanol afforded the desired ester (126). An investigation of the effect of solvent on the backbone rearrangement of 3/8,4/3-epoxyshionane (130) by boron trifluoride etherate has shown that nucleophilic solvents tend to interrupt the rearrangement at an early stage (see Vol. 6, p. 130). 

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