Butylmagnesium

Solutions of tert.-butylmagnesium chloride and cyclopentylmagnesium chloride in diethyl ether can be prepared in the same way. In these cases also the purity of the chlorides Is of great importance for a successful and smooth conversion into the Grignard reagent. 

The rate of the reaction decreases with increasing number of substituents in the acetylenic halide, and it is higher with acetylenic bromides than with the corresponding chlorides. Methyl magnesium iodide gives equal amounts of 1,1- and 1,3--substitution products, whereas tert.-butylmagnesium bromide does not react. However, for some tert.-butyl substituted allenes there exists an attractive com-... 

The crude tosylate obtained after evaporation of the diethyl ether was dissolved In 150 ml of THF. After addition of 1 g of CuBr the solution was cooled to -10°C and a solution of tert.-butylmagnesium chloride in 250 ml of THF, prepared from 0.40 mol of -butyl chloride and magnesium (see Chapter II, Exp. 4) was added... 

The Other requires addition of a butylmagnesium halide to a two carbon aide hyde... 

The ratio of 1,2 and 1,4-addition products is approximately 1 1. However, addition of cuprous chloride to the methyl Grignard reagent leads to exclusive 1,4-addition in yields greater than 90%. ° With isopropyl- and /-butylmagnesium bromide, only 1,4-addition products are isolated even in the absence of cuprous chloride. ... 

The actual mechanism by which a particular reaction proceeds strongly depends on the nature of the organomagnesium reagent. For instance benzophenone reacts with methylmagnesium bromide by a polar mechanism, while the reaction with t-butylmagnesium chloride proceeds for steric reasons by a SET-mechanism. 

The yield of w-butylmagnesium chloride is increased to 80% (analyzed by evolution of w-butanc) if twice the stated amount of magnesium is used. 

Merck s thienamycin synthesis commences with mono (V-silylation of dibenzyl aspartate (13, Scheme 2), the bis(benzyl) ester of aspartic acid (12). Thus, treatment of a cooled (0°C) solution of 13 in ether with trimethylsilyl chloride and triethylamine, followed by filtration to remove the triethylamine hydrochloride by-product, provides 11. When 11 is exposed to the action of one equivalent of tm-butylmagnesium chloride, the active hydrogen attached to nitrogen is removed, and the resultant anion spontaneously condenses with the electrophilic ester carbonyl four atoms away. After hydrolysis of the reaction mixture with 2 n HC1 saturated with ammonium chloride, enantiomerically pure azetidinone ester 10 is formed in 65-70% yield from 13. Although it is conceivable that... 

Metalation ofa-sulfinyl dimethylhydrazones with terf-butylmagnesium bromide, butyllithium or lithium diisopropylamide, and reaction of the generated azaenolates with aldehydes, provides aldol adducts (e.g., 6) as mixtures of diastereomers. Reductive desulfurization leads to fi-hydroxy dimethylhydrazones (e.g., 7) which are cleaved to the desired /(-hydroxy ketones in 25% overall yield10 u. The enantiomeric excesses are about 50%, except for (- )-3-hydroxy-4-methyl-1-phenyl-1-pentanone (8) which was obtained in 88% ee. 

Optically active Art-butyl 2-(4-methylphenylsulfinyl)propanoate only reacted with aldehydes in the presence of e//-butylmagnesium bromide as a base36. The asymmetric induction for the formation of the hydroxylic center was higher in the case of aliphatic aldehydes (75-80%) than in the case of benzaldehyde (33%). The diastereoselectivity regarding the tertiary center to sulfur was not determined. 

Substantially high diastereoselectivity was accomplished by the conjugate addition of Grignard reagents to the amide 1 derived from 1-ephedrine32. The reagent attacked from the Re-face of the double bond, as shown in 2, via a chelated intermediate. Low asymmetric induction was observed when butyllithium was used instead of butylmagnesium bromide. 

Polarization also occurs in coupling and disproportionation reactions of Grignard reagents with alkyl halides. The vinyl protons of isobutene produced in the reaction of t-butylmagnesium chloride with t-butyl bromide show A/E polarization as do the methyl protons of isobutane (Ward et al., 1970). Similar results arise in the reaction of diethyl-magnesium with organic halides (Kasukhin et al., 1972). 

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