Carbanion chiral

The enantioselective reactions of carbanions a to S, Se, P or halogens and those of benzyllith-ium compounds are reviewed, focusing on the enantiodetermining pathways in relation to the configurational stability of the lithium carbanions and the lithium carbanion-chiral ligand complexes. 

In the warm-cool procedure, the lithium carbanion-chiral ligand complexes, often prepared at low temperature, are warmed so as to be in equilibrium and then cooled to be reacted with an electrophile. When the product has a certain value of enantiomeric excess different from that obtained in the reaction at low temperature, the lithium carbanion-chiral ligand complexes are configuration-ally stable. 

Alcohols can be synthesized by the addition of carbanions to carbonyl compounds (W.C. Still, 1976) or epoxides. Both types of reactions often produce chiral centres, and stereoselectivity is an important aspect of these reactions. 

The target molecule above contains a chiral center. An enantioselective synthesis can therefore be developed We use this opportunity to summarize our knowledge of enantioselective reactions. They are either alkylations of carbanions or addition reactions to C = C or C = 0 double bonds ... 

An increasing number of examples of ring formation through 1,5-electrocyclization of appropriate carbanions are illustrated in Scheme 27. In the last example the use of a chiral alkoxide (R = menthyl or bornyl) results in the formation of chiral indolines with optical purities ranging from 17 to 31%. 

Chiral />3-carbanions with the anionic center being the sole center of stereogenicity. 

D Chiral or achiral. v/H-carbanions with an additional, configurationally stable stereo-genic center. Very often the additional stereogenic center is in close vicinity (a- or -position) to the anionic center. 

In addition reactions to chiral carbonyl compounds, the stereochemical course taken by resonance-stabilized alkali metals or magnesium benzyl anions resembles that taken by localized carbanions of similar bulk. Thus, conditions can be delineated which lead to either the steric approach or chelation control the following serve as examples. 

The first report on the addition of carbanions a-substituted by a chiral sulfinyl group to carbonyl functions described the reaction with symmetrical ketones3. It was found that meta-lation of ( + )-(S)-(methylsulfinylmethyl)benzene followed by quenching with acetone gives a mixture of diastereomeric /i-hydroxysulfoxides in a 15 1 ratio. This ratio depends on the presence or absence of extra lithium salts i.c., the source of the mcthyllithium used in deprotonation67. 

High diastereoselectivity at the sulfinyl group bearing carbon and low diastereoselectivity at the prostereogenic carbonyl group resulted on addition of a chiral sulfoxide carbanion to an... 

The big difference between the extent of asymmetric induction on the addition to a prostereogenic carbonyl group of simple carbanions a to a chiral sulfoxide on the one hand and enolates of sulfinyl esters on the other, can be attributed to the capacity of the ester function to chelate magnesium in the transition states and intermediates. The results already described for the addition of chiral thioacetal monosulfoxide to aldehydes (see Section 1.3.6.5.) underscore the importance of other functions, e.g., sulfide, for the extent of asymmetric induction. 

The preparation of enantiomerically enriched a-ketosulphoxides 272 was also based on a kinetic resolution involving the reaction of the carbanion 273 derived from racemic aryl methyl sulphoxides with a deficiency of optically active carboxylic esters 274334, (equation 151). The degree of stereoselectivity in this reaction is strongly dependent on the nature of both the group R and the chiral residue R in 274. Thus, the a-ketosulphoxide formed in the reaction with menthyl esters had an optical yield of 1.3% for R = Et. In the... 

Durst and coworkers were the first to report the condensation of chiral a-sulphinyl carbanions with carbonyl compounds477. They found that metallation of ( + )-(S)-benzyl methyl sulphoxide 397 followed by quenching with acetone gives a mixture of dia-stereoisomeric /i-hydroxy sulphoxides 398 in a 15 1 ratio (equation 233). The synthesis of optically active oxiranes was based on this reaction (equation 234). In this context, it is interesting to point out that condensation of benzyl phenyl sulphoxide with benzaldehyde gave a mixture of four / -sulphinyl alcohols (40% overall yield), the ratio of which after immediate work-up was 41 19 8 32478. 

Posner and coworkers have published a series of papers in which they described a successful application of the Michael reaction between a variety of carbanionic reagents and chiral cycloalkenone sulphoxides 557 to the synthesis of chiral organic compounds (for reviews see References 257, 649, 650). In several cases products of very high optical purity can be obtained. Subsequent removal of the sulphinyl group, serving as a chiral adjuvant, leads to optically active 3-substituted cycloalkenones 558 (equation 356 Table 27). 

One commonly used procedure for studying the steric stability of the carbanion is comparison of the rate of base-catalyzed H/D exchange reaction (kel) on the chiral carbon with the rate of racemization (fcrac). By this comparison, inversion, racemization or... 

Sulfoxides (R1—SO—R2), which are tricoordinate sulfur compounds, are chiral when R1 and R2 are different, and a-sulfmyl carbanions derived from optically active sulfoxides are known to retain the chirality. Therefore, these chiral carbanions usually give products which are rich in one diastereomer upon treatment with some prochiral reagents. Thus, optically active sulfoxides have been used as versatile reagents for asymmetric syntheses of many naturally occurring products116, since optically active a-sulfinyl carbanions can cause asymmetric induction in the C—C bond formation due to their close vicinity. In the following four subsections various reactions of a-sulfinyl carbanions are described (A) alkylation and acylation, (B) addition to unsaturated bonds such as C=0, C=N or C= N, (C) nucleophilic addition to a, /5-unsaturated sulfoxides, and (D) reactions of allylic sulfoxides. 

Other asymmetric syntheses, based on aldol condensation of chiral a-sulfinyl carbanions with carbonyl compounds, are the formation of / -hydroxyketones from /J-sulfinylhydrazones 166211-214, of /3, /l -dihydroxyketones from 3-(p-tolylsulfinyl-methyl)-A2-methylisoxalinones 167215, of /1-hydroxyacids from 2-(p-tolylsulfinylmethyl)oxazolines 168216 and of /J-hydroxyesters from ethyl-p-tolylsulfinyl-W-methoxyacetamide 169217. 

The mechanism of these reactions is usually Sn2 with inversion taking place at a chiral RX, though there is strong evidence that an SET mechanism is involved in certain cases, ° especially where the nucleophile is an a-nitro carbanion and/or the substrate contains a nitro or cyano group. Tertiary alkyl groups can be introduced by an SnI mechanism if the ZCH2Z compound (not the enolate ion) is treated with a tertiary carbocation generated in situ from an alcohol or alkyl halide and BF3 or AlCla, or with a tertiary alkyl perchlorate. ... 

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