Carbanions conjugate addition

A synthetically useful reaction known as the Michael reaction, or Michael addition, involves nucleophilic addition of carbanions to a p unsaturated ketones The most common types of carbanions used are enolate 10ns derived from p diketones These enolates are weak bases (Section 18 6) and react with a p unsaturated ketones by conjugate addition... 

Rifamycin S also undergoes conjugate addition reactions to the quinone ring by a variety of nucleophiles including ammonia, primary and secondary amines, mercaptans, carbanions, and enamines giving the C-3 substituted derivatives (38) of rifamycin SV (117,120,121). Many of the derivatives show excellent antibacterial properties (109,118,122,123). The 3-cycHc amino derivatives of rifamycin SV also inhibit the polymerase of RNA tumor vimses (123,124). 

Michael addition (Sections 18.13 and 21.9) The conjugate addition of a carbanion (usually an enolate) to an a,(3-unsatu-rated carbonyl compound. 

Attachment of a basic amino group to the side chain leads to a compound with antiparkinsonian activity. Alkylation of the carbanion from phenylacetonitrile with 2-chlorotriethylamine affords the product, 36. Conjugate addition of the anion from this to acrylonitrile gives the glutarodinitrile (37). Partial hydrolysis of this in a mixture of sulfuric and acetic acid leads to phenglutarimide (38). ... 

Potassium or lithium derivatives of ethyl acetate, dimethyl acetamide, acetonitrile, acetophenone, pinacolone and (trimethylsilyl)acetylene are known to undergo conjugate addition to 3-(t-butyldimethylsiloxy)-1 -cyclohexenyl t-butyl sulfone 328. The resulting a-sulfonyl carbanions 329 can be trapped stereospecifically by electrophiles such as water and methyl iodide417. When the nucleophile was an sp3-hybridized primary anion (Nu = CH2Y), the resulting product was mainly 330, while in the reaction with (trimethylsilyl)acetylide anion the main product was 331. 

Cory and Renneboog53 have devised an efficient bicycloannulation for the synthesis of tricyclo[3.2.1.02,7]octane-6-one (66) as shown in equation 63. The method involves three steps (1) the enolate undergoes an initial conjugate addition to phenyl vinyl sulfone, (2) the resulting sulfone-stabilized carbanion undergoes an intramolecular Michael addition to the enone, and (3) the resulting enolate displaces phenylsulfinyl moiety from the tricyclooctanone. The amount of HMPA (3 mol equivalents) is critical for effective cyclization of the enolate. 

This type of asymmetric conjugate addition of allylic sulfinyl carbanions to cyclopen-tenones has been applied successfully to total synthesis of some natural products. For example, enantiomerically pure (+ )-hirsutene (29) is prepared (via 28) using as a key step conjugate addition of an allylic sulfinyl carbanion to 2-methyl-2-cyclopentenone (equation 28)65, and (+ )-pentalene (31) is prepared using as a key step kinetically controlled conjugate addition of racemic crotyl sulfinyl carbanion to enantiomerically pure cyclopentenone 30 (equation 29) this kinetic resolution of the crotyl sulfoxide is followed by several chemical transformations leading to (+ )-pentalene (31)68. 

Protonation of the enolate ion is chiefly at the oxygen, which is more negative than the carbon, but this produces the enol, which tautomerizes. So, although the net result of the reaction is addition to a carbon-carbon double bond, the mechanism is 1,4 nucleophilic addition to the C=C—C=0 (or similar) system and is thus very similar to the mechanism of addition to carbon-oxygen double and similar bonds (see Chapter 16). When Z is CN or a C=0 group, it is also possible for Y to attack at this carbon, and this reaction sometimes competes. When it happens, it is called 1,2 addition. 1,4 Addition to these substrates is also known as conjugate addition. The Y ion almost never attacks at the 3 position, since the resulting carbanion would have no resonance stabilization " ... 

The mechanism of the cyanide- and thioazolium ion-catalyzed conjugate addition reactions is considered to be analogous to the Lapworth mechanism for the cyanide-catalyzed benzoin condensation. Thus the cyano-stabilized carbanion resulting from deprotonation of the cyanohydrin of the aldehyde is presumed to be the actual Michael donor. After conjugate addition to the activated olefin, cyanide is eliminated to form the product and regenerate the catalyst. 

Several examples of conjugate addition of carbanions carried out under aprotic conditions are given in Scheme 2.24. The reactions are typically quenched by addition of a proton source to neutralize the enolate. It is also possible to trap the adduct by silylation or, as we will see in Section 2.6.2, to carry out a tandem alkylation. Lithium enolates preformed by reaction with LDA in THF react with enones to give 1,4-diketones (Entries 1 and 2). Entries 3 and 4 involve addition of ester enolates to enones. The reaction in Entry 3 gives the 1,2-addition product at —78°C but isomerizes to the 1,4-product at 25° C. Esters of 1,5-dicarboxylic acids are obtained by addition of ester enolates to a,(3-unsaturated esters (Entry 5). Entries 6 to 8 show cases of... 

Delocalized carbanions are soft and can undergo conjugate additions readily with unsaturated carbonyl compounds in water. For nonstabi-lized carbanions, the change of counter-cation can significantly affect... 

Lengthening the side chain produces the antidepressant maprotiline (73), which has a topological relationship to the clinically useful tricyclic antidepressants. The requisite acid is constructed by conjugate addition of the carbanion of anthrone (64) to acrylonitrile, followed by hydrolysis to give 70. Reduction of the carbonyl group with zinc and ammonia gives anthracene 71 by dehydration of the intermediate... 

A variety of carbanions have been employed forthe conjugate addition to nitroalkenes recent results are shown in Table 4.1. 

Recently, the use of chiral carbanionic ligands as non-transferable ligands has received attention. Gais and BoBhammer have successfully applied cyclic ct-sulfonimidoyl carbanion 24 in the conjugate addition of alkylcuprates to cycloalkenones (Scheme 14).30... 

The intermediate product 162, formed from the nudeophilic addition of 1,2-alle-nic phosphonate or 1,2-allenic phosphine oxide with allylic alcohol, would also undergo a Claisen rearrangement to form 2-oxo-5-alkenyl phosphonate or phosphine oxide 163 [85], The rearrangement is accelerated by the carbanionic nature of the intermediate 162. For the conjugate addition step, the reaction temperature is crucial since the reaction at 0 °C afforded mainly /i,y-unsaturated product whereas a,/8-unsaturated products were formed at 20 °C. 

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