Carbanions nonstabilized

Current results indicate that stabilized arsonium ylides such as phenacylide, carbomethoxymethylide, cyanomethylide, fluorenylide, and cyclopentadienylide afford only olefinic products upon reaction with carbonyl compounds. Nonstabilized ylides such as ethylide afford almost exclusively epoxides or rearranged products thereof. However, semi-stabilized arsonium ylides, such as the benzylides, afford approximately equimolar amounts of olefin and epoxide. Obviously, the nature of the carbanion moiety of the arsonium ylide greatly affects the course of the reaction. It is reasonable to suppose that a two-step mechanism is involved in the reaction of heteronium (P, S, and As) ylides with carbonyl compounds (56). 

Backwall and coworkers have extensively studied the stereochemistry of nucleophilic additions on 7r-alkenic and ir-allylic palladium(II) complexes. They concluded that nucleophiles which preferentially undergo a trans external attack are hard bases such as amines, water, alcohols, acetate and stabilized carbanions such as /3-diketonates. In contrast, soft bases are nonstabilized carbanions such as methyl or phenyl groups and undergo a cis internal nucleophilic attack at the coordinated substrate.398,399 The pseudocyclic alkylperoxypalladation procedure occurring in the ketonization of terminal alkenes by [RCC PdOOBu1], complexes (see Section 61.3.2.2.2)42 belongs to internal cis addition processes, as well as the oxidation of complexed alkenes by coordinated nitro ligands (vide in/ra).396,397... 

The above system failed entirely when nonstabilized carbanions such as ketone or ester enolates or Grignard reagents were used as carbon nucleophiles, leading to reductive coupling of the anions rather than alkylation of the alkene. However, the fortuitous observation that the addition of HMPA to the reaction mixture prior to addition of the carbanion prevented this side reaction1 extended the range of useful carbanions substantially to include ketone and ester enolates, oxazoline anions, protected cyanohydrin anions, nitrile-stabilized anions3 and even phenyllithium (Scheme 3).s... 

With these nonstabilized carbanions, attack occurred almost exclusively at the less-substituted terminus of the alkene, regioselectivity opposite that observed with stabilized carbanions. This regioselectivity... 

Dienes form very stable complexes with a variety of metal caibonyls, particularly Fe(CO)s, and the neutral V-diene metal carbonyl complexes are quite resistant to normal reactions of dienes (e.g. hydrogenation, Diels-Alder). However, they are subject to nucleophilic attack by a variety of nonstabilized carbanions. Treatment of -cyclohexadiene iron tricarbonyl with nonstabilized carbanions, followed by protonolysis of the resulting complex, produced isomeric mixtures of alkylated cyclohexenes (Scheme 15).24 With acyclic dienes, this alkylation was shown to be reversible, with kinetic alkylation occurring at an internal position of the complexed dienes but rearranging to the terminal position under thermodynamic conditions (Scheme 16).2S By trapping the kinetic product with an electrophile, overall carbo-... 

Since the anion N is a nonstabilized carbanion, an organometallic nucleophile such as an organolitliium or a Grignard reagent could be prepared from the corresponding bromide. 

J. M. Klunder, G. H. Posner, Alkylations of Nonstabilized Carbanions, in Comprehensive Organic Synthesis (B. M. Trost, I. Fleming, Eds.), Vol. 3, 207, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1991. 

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