Bronsted Acid-Catalyzed Diels-Alder Reaction

Bronsted-acid-catalyzed Diels-Alder reactions are not frequent because of the proton sensitivity of many dienes and cycloadducts, especially when long reaction times and high temperatures are required. Examples in aqueous medium involving imines activated by protonation as dienophiles and a proton-promoted Diels-Alder reaction of glyoxylic acid with cyclopentadiene are considered in Section 6.1. 

The chiral catalyst 142 achieves selectivities through a double effect of intramolecular hydrogen binding interaction and attractive tt-tt donor-acceptor interactions in the transition state by a hydroxy aromatic group [88]. The exceptional results of some Diels-Alder reactions of cyclopentadiene with substituted acroleins catalyzed by (R)-142 are reported in Table 4.21. High enantio- and exo selectivity were always obtained. The coordination of a proton to the 2-hydroxyphenyl group with an oxygen of the adjacent B-0 bond in the nonhelical transition state should play an important role both in the exo-endo approach and in the si-re face differentiation of dienophile. 

Trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (triflic acid) in toluene greatly activates the Diels-Alder reaction of benzaldehydes with dimethylated 1,3-butadienes [89] (Table 4.22). With mono-methylated 1,3-butadienes the reaction gives less 

The fluoboric acid-catalyzed aza-Diels-Alder reaction of aldimine and Danishefsky s diene proceeds smoothly to afford dihydro-4-pyridones in high yields [90] (Equation 4.16). Unstable aldimines generated from aliphatic aldehydes can be prepared in situ and allowed to react under one-pot reaction conditions. This one-pot Bronsted acid-catalyzed three-component aza-Diels-Alder reaction affords the adducts in good to high yields. 

Gassman [92] has been a pioneer of ionic Diels-Alder reactions that proceed via in situ generation of cationic species (allylic cations) from olefinic precursors 

Bronsted-Acid-Catalyzed Diels-Alder Reaction 

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Bronsted-Acid-Catalyzed Diels-Alder Reaction... 

Bronsted acid catalyzed aza-Diels-Alder reaction of Danishefsky s diene with aidimine generated in situ from aldehyde and amine in aqueous media [107]... 

Recently, catalytic asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions have been investigated. Yamamoto reported a Bronsted-acid-assistcd chiral (BLA) Lewis acid, prepared from (R)-3-(2-hydroxy-3-phcnylphenyl)-2,2 -dihydroxy-1,1 -binaphthyl and 3,5A(trifluoromethy I) - be nzeneboronic acid, that is effective in catalyzing the enantioselective Diels-Alder reaction between a,(3-enals and various dienes.62 The interesting aspect is the role of water, THF, and MS 4A in the preparation of the catalyst (Eq. 12.19). To prevent the trimerization of the boronic acid during the preparation of the catalyst, the chiral triol and the boronic acid were mixed under aqueous conditions and then dried. Using the catalyst prepared in this manner, a 99% ee was obtained in the Diels-Alder reaction... 

This novel Bronsted acid catalyzes the Diels-Alder reaction between ethyl vinyl ketone and various acycUc siloxy dienes to furnish adducts in uniformly high yields and ee s. Further, the corresponding chiral phosphoric acid was unable to catalyze this reaction. 

Yamamoto had earlier reported that Lewis acid activation of valine-derived oxazaborolidine 60 yielded a highly reactive and moisture-tolerant LLA catalyst 61 for the Diels-Alder reaction (Scheme 5.76) [145]. In later studies, activation of 60 with the super Bronsted acid, C,sF5CHTf2, was found to produce the even more reactive catalytic species BLA 62. During studies toward an enantioselective route to Platensimycin [146], BLA 62 was found to catalyze the Diels-Alder reaction between various monosubstituted dienes and ethyl acrylate to afford adducts... 

Ene reactions involve the addition of a compound bearing a double bond (enophile) to an olefin possessing an allylic hydrogen atom (ene). They can be thermally activated, but, as the enophile, like the dienophile in the Diels-Alder reaction, should be electron deficient, complexation with a Lewis acid increases the reaction rate thus allowing to carry out the reaction under milder conditions. On the other hand Bronsted acids can also catalyze the reaction through protonation of the carbonyl group and rearrangement to form a more stable carbonium ion. 

A further application of the heterobimetallic lanthanoid catalysts of the LLB type to the field of catalytic asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions [47,48] was also achieved by Shibasaki et al. [49]. In general, LLB type complexes are multifunctional asymmetric catalysts, showing both Bronsted basicity and Lewis acidity. Nevertheless, in this study the use of LLB type catalysts acting as asymmetric Lewis acids alone was examined and led to the development of an LLB (type) catalyzed asymmetric Diels-Alder reaction [49]. Representative results for the catalytic asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions using 48 and cyclopentadiene in toluene as a solvent are shown in Scheme 16. 

The Diels-Alder cycloaddition reaction of dihydropyran with acrolein was performed in the presence of various H-form zeolites such as H-Faujasites, H-p, H-Mordenites which differ both in their shape selective as well as their acidic properties. The activity of the different catalysts was determined and the reaction products were identified. High 3delds in cycloadduct were obtained over dealuminated HY (Si/Al=15) and Hp (Si/Al=25) compared to HM (Si/Al=10). These results were accounted for in terms of acidity, shape selectivity and microporosity vs mesoporosity properties. The activity and the regioselectivity were then discussed in terms of frontier orbital interactions on the basis of MNDO calculations for thermal and catalyzed reactions by complexing the diene and the dienophile with Bronsted and Lewis acidic sites. From these calculations, Bronsted acidic sites appeared to be more efficient than Lewis acidic sites to achieve Diels-Alder reactions. 

However, for liquid phase reactions, it is very difficult to correlate the results wiHi BrOnsted or Lewis acidity as the reaction conditions used are different from those used for characterization. When the Diels-Alder reaction is conducted in a solvent, it appears that the maximum for the activity of HY zeolites is obtained for a Si/Al ratio of 15. This maximum was also observed for esterification of carboiQ lic acids (14), methylthiolation of phenol with dimethyldisulfide (15), acylation of toluene with benzoic acids (15) or dehydration of fhictose (15), and in solvents such as alcohols, water or hydrocarbons. If we assume that Lewis species are transformed to Brdnsted ones in the presence of water as solvent, this would thus mean that the Diels-Alder reaction is preferentially catalyzed by BrSnsted species, the maximum observed at Si/Al=15 for HY zeolites being a good balance between the niunber 6ind the strength of the protonic species. 

The Povarov reaction is the inverse electron-demand aza-Diels-Alder reaction, a [4 + 2] cycloaddition between an A-arylimine (as the diene) and an electron-rich olefin (as the dienophile), which gives tetrahydroquinolines 3 or substituted quinolines 4 as the product. This reaction also called as imino-Diels-Alder reaction, usually catalyzed by Lewis or Bronsted acids. Since the jV-arylimine can be prepared in situ from aniline and aldehyde, thus the Povarov reaction can be performed in a one-pot fashion. ... 

Numerous investigations of highly enantioselective reactions catalyzed by chiral phosphoric acids (86) continue to be reported. The potential of this type of Bronsted acid in asymmetric catalysis has been demonstrated. The first asymmetric direct hetero Diels-Alder reaction catalyzed by a chiral Bronsted acid has been described. Thus chiral phosphoric acid (86) exhibited superior enantioselectivity, affording fairly good yields and enantioselectivities for reactions of aromatic aldimines with cyclohexenone (Scheme 21). ... 

The aza-Diels-Alder reaction of imines with diene of Danishefsky is an important route to 2,3-dihydro-4-pyridones. A number of Lewis acids have been used to catalyze the reaction in organic solvents. In water the reaction was realized by acid catalysis via iminium salts or by Bronsted acids. The montmorillonite K-10 catalyzed this cycloaddition in water or in aqueous acetonitrile in excellent yield. Recently Kobayashi has performed the reaction in water at room temperature under neutral conditions in two (imine - - diene) or three (aldehyde -b amine -b diene) component versions by using sodium triflate as catalyst. Imine intermediates from the indium-mediated reaction, in aqueous medium at 50° C, between aromatic nitro compounds and 2,3-dihydrofuran undergo aza-Diels-Alder cycloadditions to give tetrahydroquinoline derivatives in good overall yields. ... 

Although phosphoric acid has been employed for the activation of carbon-nitrogen double bond, Yamamoto et at. designed a stronger chiral Bronsted acid in order to expand the scope of the chiral Bronsted acid catalyzed reactions. A N-triflyl phosphoramide (50), bearing BINOL backbone, catalyzed the Diels-Alder reaction of a,p-unsaturated ketone with electron-rich diene ((2, )-siloxydiene is major) to give cyclohexene derivatives in high ees (Scheme 2.106) [184]. 

In 2006, Gong and coworkers reported the first chiral Bronsted add-catalyzed asymmetric direct aza-hetero-Diels-Alder reaction [70]. Phosphoric acid catalyst 160 exhibited excellent catalytic activity and selectivity for the reaction of cyclohex-enone (31) with a broad range of aldimines 159 to produce N-containing heterocycles 162 with up to 87% ee (Scheme 38.47). More recently, Carter and coworker developed the modified proline catalyst 161 for this reaction, and high levels of enantioselectivity and diastereoselectivity were obtained (Scheme 38.47) [71]. Interestingly, the aromatic imines favor exo products while the aliphatic imines favor endo products. 

Nafion-H (144), a perfluorinated resin-sulfonic acid, is an efficient Bronsted-acid catalyst which has two advantages it requires only catalytic amounts since it forms reversible complexes, and it avoids the destruction and separation of the catalyst upon completion of the reaction [94], Thus in the presence of Nafion-H, 1,4-benzoquinone and isoprene give the Diels-Alder adduct in 80% yield at 25 °C, and 1,3-cyclohexadiene reacts with acrolein at 25 °C affording 88 % of cycloadduct after 40 h, while the uncatalyzed reactions give very low yields after boiling for 1 h or at 100 °C for 3.5 h respectively [95], Other examples are given in Table 4.24. In the acid-catalyzed reactions that use highly reactive dienes such as isoprene and 2,3-dimethylbutadiene, polymerization of alkenes usually occurs with Nafion-H, no polymerization was observed. 

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