Carbene-imines

The carbene-imine route to aziridines has attracted increasing attention of late, though there have also been notable recent advances in addition processes involving alkenes and nitrene equivalents. 

This area of research has only recently attracted the attention of synthetic organic chemists, but there has been a flurry of impressive activity in the area. Simple (i. e., unstabilized) carbenes suffer from many of the problems of nitrenes (vide infra) and most reported synthetically useful procedures use carbenoids the majority of recent reports have focussed upon reactions between a-diazoesters and imines in the presence of a range of catalysts. In one of the earliest reports of enantioselective carbene-imine reactions, for instance, Jacobsen and Finney reported that ethyl diazoacetate reacts with N-arylaldimines in the presence of cop-per(i) hexafluorophosphate with mediocre stereoselectivity to give N-arylaziridine carboxylates. Though the diastereoselectivities of the reaction were often acceptable (usually >10 1, in favor of the cis isomers) the observed enantioselectivity was low (no more than 44% ee Scheme 4.27) [33],... 

Scheme 15 Allylic alkylation catalyzed by a palladium complex bearing the carbene-imine...

Several examples of imino-functionalized carbene complexes of palladium have been described. " The imidazolium salt 97 was prepared and coordinated to Pd by an Ag-transfer reaction. Tautomerization of the carbene-imine bond occurs during the transfer reaction to give the the enamine complex 98. Neutral and cationic Pd complexes of a second closely related chelating iminocarbene ligand, 99, were also prepared via an Ag-transfer route. " In this case, no tautomerization was reported. However, evidence of solvent-dependent hemilability was observed. 

Other non-oxidative procedures have also been used to deaminate aziridines. For example, aziridines react with carbenes to yield ylides which subsequently decompose to the alkene. Dichlorocarbene and ethoxycarbonylcarbene have served as the divalent carbon source. The former gives dichioroisocyanides, e.g. (281), as by-products (72TL3827) and the latter yields imines (72TL4659). This procedure has also been applied to aziridines unsubstituted on the nitrogen atom although the decomposition step, in this case, is not totally stereospecific (72TL3827). 

Other potential synthetic routes to these unsaturated aziridine derivatives which involve the addition of nitrenes to allenes <75JOC224), carbenes to imines with subsequent hydrolysis <67JA362), and of carbenoid species to ketenimines <76TL1317,79TL559) have been investigated but are collectively of little or no preparative value. 

Silylketenes in formation of (3-lactones and (3-lactams 98JCS(P1)2105. Syntheses of (3-lactams, (3-lactones, and 1,3- and 1,4-diazetidinediones by pho-tochemically induced cycloaddition reactions of chromium carbene complexes with imines, aldehydes, and azo compounds 97T4105. 

Synthesis of aziridines by treatment of carbenes with imines was reported by Jacobsen [56]. A metallocarbene 104 derived from ethyl diazoacetate and copper fluorophosphate was treated with N-arylaldimines to form aziridines with reasonable diastereoselectivities (>10 1 in favor of cis) but with low enantioselectivities (about 44% ee). This was shown to result from a competitive achiral reaction path-... 

In 1999, Bob Atkinson wrote [1] that aziridination reactions were epoxida-tion s poor relation , and this was undoubtedly true at that time the scope of the synthetic methods available for preparation of aziridines was rather narrow when compared to the diversity of the procedures used for the preparation of the analogous oxygenated heterocycles. The preparation of aziridines has formed the basis of several reviews [2] and the reader is directed towards those works for a comprehensive analysis of the area this chapter presents a concise overview of classical methods and focuses on modern advances in the area of aziridine synthesis, with particular attention to stereoselective reactions between nitrenes and al-kenes on the one hand, and carbenes and imines on the other. 

Those reactions that have found general use for the preparation of aziridines can be grouped into two broad classes addition and cyclization processes, and each of these categories can be further divided. Addition processes can be classified as being C2+N1 reactions (addition of nitrenes, or nitrene equivalents [ nitrenoids ], to alkenes Scheme 4.1) or (J N1+C1 reactions (addition of carbenes or carbenoids to imines Scheme 4.2). 

The synthesis of aziridines through reactions between nitrenes or nitrenoids and alkenes involves the simultaneous (though often asynchronous vide supra) formation of two new C-N bonds. The most obvious other alternative synthetic analysis would be simultaneous formation of one C-N bond and one C-C bond (Scheme 4.26). Thus, reactions between carbenes or carbene equivalents and imines comprise an increasingly useful method for aziridination. In addition to carbenes and carbenoids, ylides have also been used to effect aziridinations of imines in all classes of this reaction type the mechanism frequently involves a stepwise, addition-elimination process, rather than a synchronous bond-forming event. 

Reaction of a,/MJnsaturated Fischer Carbene Complexes with Alkenes, Butadienes, Enamines, and Imines... 

Iwasawa et al. also developed a new reaction involving a three-component coupling process which affords five-membered heterocycles. This [2s+2sh-1c] cycloaddition reaction supposes the consecutive addition of an alkynyllithium derivative to a Fischer carbene complex followed by the addition of a third component which can be an aldehyde, an imine, an isocyanate, or C02 [119] (Scheme 74). 

Abstract The photoinduced reactions of metal carbene complexes, particularly Group 6 Fischer carbenes, are comprehensively presented in this chapter with a complete listing of published examples. A majority of these processes involve CO insertion to produce species that have ketene-like reactivity. Cyclo addition reactions presented include reaction with imines to form /1-lactams, with alkenes to form cyclobutanones, with aldehydes to form /1-lactones, and with azoarenes to form diazetidinones. Photoinduced benzannulation processes are included. Reactions involving nucleophilic attack to form esters, amino acids, peptides, allenes, acylated arenes, and aza-Cope rearrangement products are detailed. A number of photoinduced reactions of carbenes do not involve CO insertion. These include reactions with sulfur ylides and sulfilimines, cyclopropanation, 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions, and acyl migrations. 

CBz-protected benzimidazole gave primarily oxazinone [31], while 3/f-indoles incorporated two equivalents of imine (Eq. 4) [32]. In these cases it appears that the initially formed zwitterionic ketene-imine adduct could not close, and reacted with additional photo activated carbene or substrate. 

Other miscellaneous imines that underwent photoreaction with chromium alkoxycarbenes include iminodithiocarbonates [33],the mono-N-phenylimine of benzil and the bis-JV-phenyl imine of acetoin [20]. By preparing the chromium carbene complex from 13CO-labeled chromium hexacarbonyl, /J-lactams with two adjacent 13C labels were synthesized [34]. 

Chromium aminocarbenes [39] are readily available from the reaction of K2Cr(CO)5 with iminium chlorides [40] or amides and trimethylsilyl chloride [41]. Those from formamides (H on carbene carbon) readily underwent photoreaction with a variety of imines to produce /J-lactams, while those having R-groups (e.g.,Me) on the carbene carbon produced little or no /J-lactam products [13]. The dibenzylaminocarbene complex underwent reaction with high diastereoselectivity (Table 4). As previously observed, cyclic, optically active imines produced /J-lactams with high enantioselectivity, while acyclic, optically active imines induced little asymmetry. An intramolecular version produced an unusual anti-Bredt lactam rather than the expected /J-lactam (Eq. 8) [44]. 

Although the photodriven reactions of chromium carbene complexes with imines superficially resemble those of free ketenes, there are major differences. The optically active oxazolidine carbene (Table 5) gave excellent yields and high ee values when allowed to react with imidates, oxazines, thiazines, and... 

One of the earliest reported thermal reactions of Fischer carbene complexes was the reaction with olefins to give cyclopropanes [127]. More recently it has been shown that photolysis accelerates inter molecular cydopropanation of electron-poor alkenes [128]. Photolysis of Group 6 imine carbenes with alkenes... 

Finally, chromium imine carbenes underwent photoreaction with imines to give azadienes (metathesis) (Eq. 36), with azobenzene to give both metathesis and cycloaddition products (Eq. 37), and with ketones to give oxazolines... 

Table 25 Photo-driven reaction of Group 6 imine carbenes with alkenes ...

Lopez R, Sordo TL, Sordo JA, Gonzalez J (1993) J Org Chem 58 7036 Cossio F, Ugalde JM, Lopez X, Lecea B, Palomo C (1993) J Am Chem Soc 115 995 Cossio FP, Arrieta A, Lecea B, Ugalde JM (1994) J Am Chem Soc 116 2085 GerrietaA,Lecea B, Cossio FP (1998) J Org Chem 63 5869. For a theoretical treatment of the photoreaction of chromium carbene complexes with imines see Arrieta A, Cossio FP, Fernandez I, Gomez-Gallego M, Lecea B, Mancheno MJ, Sierra MA (2000) J Am Chem Soc 122 11509... 

These complexes can be isolated in some cases in others they are generated in situ from appropriate precursors, of which diazo compounds are among the most important. These compounds, including CH2N2 and other diazoalkanes, react with metals or metal salts (copper, palladium, and rhodium are most commonly used) to give the carbene complexes that add CRR to double bonds. Ethyl a-diazoacetate reacts with styrene in the presence of bis(ferrocenyl) bis(imine), for example, to give ethyl 2-phenylcyclopropane-l-carboxylate. Optically active complexes have... 

Ring expansion of tetrahydrofurans to dihydropyrans results when their 2-W-aziiidinyl imines are heated <96CC909> and when their 2-ca-alkyl bromides are treated with Ag20 in a nucleophilic acidic solvent <96JCS(P1)413>. Alkyl carbenes and bicyclic oxonium ion intermediates are invoked, respectively. 

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