Carbene insertion reactions rhodium

In CHEC-II(1996), carbene insertion reactions into the N-H bond to form a fused-ring azetidinone warranted a separate section. In the last decade, the popularity to this approach to bicyclic systems seems to have markedly declined. Nevertheless, dirhodium tetraacetate and rhodium octanoate were used to generate the corresponding bicyclic compounds from the diazo compounds 241 (R2 = H and /3-Me), respectively, via the carbene intermediates. In the latter case, the produced enol was esterified and then the ester group replaced with a hydroxymethyl substituent to give derivatives 242 in a one-pot process <2001JCM166, 1999TL427>. 

As mentioned, rhodium-catalyzed cyclopropanation reaction of diazoketones is quite useful. As we saw in Section 11.12.C, Davies used a carbene insertion reaction in tandem with a Cope rearrangement to prepare... 

Sulfur controlled radical cyclization of A -ethenyl-a-bromo-alkanamides occurs in a A-exo-trig manner to give the trans-3,A-Rhodium catalyzed carbene insertion reactions are very useful for the preparation of bicyclic P-lactams but are little used to form monocyclic p-lactams. High yields and exceptional stereocontrol are achieved when a-diazo-amides are decomposed in the presence of rhodium(II) catalysts to give (63) (93BMC2409). 

In spite of the existing methods to carry out the ring closure [5c], the carbene insertion reaction developed by the Merck group [7] for the thienamycin synthesis (Scheme 1), seems to be the most efficient procedure for the construction of bicyclic p-lactam compounds. Thermolysis of diazoketone 7 in the presence of rhodium acetate provides the cyclized P-ketoester 8 in excellent yield which can be converted into thienamycin 3 in three steps. 

A similar type of chiral rhodium porphyrin was found to be effective for the carbene-insertion reaction to olefins, where formation of the carbene complex takes place. Chiral rhodium complexes for catalytic stereoselective-carbene addition to olefins were prepared by condensation of a chiral aldehyde and pyrrole. Formation of the metal-carbene complex and substrate access to the catalytic center are crucial to the production of optically active cyclopropane derivatives. Optically active a-methoxy-a-(trifluoro-methyOphenylacetyl groups are linked witfi the amino groups of a,p,0L,p isomers of tetrakis-(2-aminophenyI)por-phyrin through amide bonds. Oxidation reactions of the... 

The insertion of a carbene into a Z-H bond, where Z=C, Si, is generally referred to as an insertion reaction, whereas those occurring from Z=0,N are based on ylide chemistry [75]. These processes are unique to carbene chemistry and are facilitated by dirhodium(II) catalysts in preference to all others [1, 3,4]. The mechanism of this reaction involves simultaneous Z-H bond breaking, Z-car-bene C and carbene C-H bond formation, and the dissociation of the rhodium catalyst from the original carbene center [1]. 

Rh(Por)l (Por = OEP. TPP, TMP) also acts as a catalyst for the insertion of carbene fragments into the O—H bonds of alcohols, again using ethyl diazoacetate as the carbene source. A rhodium porphyrin carbene intermediate was proposed in the reaction, which is more effective for primary than secondary or tertiary alcohols, and with the bulky TMP ligand providing the most selectivity. ... 

The view has been expressed that a primarily formed ylide may be responsible for both the insertion and the cyclopropanation products 230 246,249). In fact, ylide 263 rearranges intramolecularly to the 2-thienylmalonate at the temperature applied for the Cul P(OEt)3 catalyzed reaction between thiophene and the diazomalonic ester 250) this readily accounts for the different outcome of the latter reaction and the Rh2(OAc)4-catalyzed reaction at room temperature. Alternatively, it was found that 2,5-dichlorothiophenium bis(methoxycarbonyl)methanide, in the presence of copper or rhodium catalysts, undergoes typical carben(oid) reactions intermole-cularly 251,252) whether this has any bearing on the formation of 262 or 265, is not known, however. 

The Lewis acid-Lewis base interaction outlined in Scheme 43 also explains the formation of alkylrhodium complexes 414 from iodorhodium(III) meso-tetraphenyl-porphyrin 409 and various diazo compounds (Scheme 42)398), It seems reasonable to assume that intermediates 418 or 419 (corresponding to 415 and 417 in Scheme 43) are trapped by an added nucleophile in the reaction with ethyl diazoacetate, and that similar intermediates, by proton loss, give rise to vinylrhodium complexes from ethyl 2-diazopropionate or dimethyl diazosuccinate. As the rhodium porphyrin 409 is also an efficient catalyst for cyclopropanation of olefins with ethyl diazoacetate 87,1°°), stj bene formation from aryl diazomethanes 358 and carbene insertion into aliphatic C—H bonds 287, intermediates 418 or 419 are likely to be part of the mechanistic scheme of these reactions, too. 

As shown in the previous two sections, rhodium(n) dimers are superior catalysts for metal carbene C-H insertion reactions. For nitrene C-H insertion reactions, many catalysts found to be effective for carbene transfer are also effective for these reactions. Particularly, Rh2(OAc)4 has demonstrated great effectiveness in the inter- and intramolecular nitrene C-H insertions. The exploration of enantioselective C-H amination using chiral rhodium catalysts has been reported by several groups.225,244,253-255 Hashimoto s dirhodium tetrakis[A-tetrachlorophthaloyl-(A)-/ r/-leuci-nate], Rh2(derived rhodium complex, Rh2(i -BNP)4 48,244 afforded moderate enantiomeric excess for amidation of benzylic C-H bonds with NsN=IPh. 

The catalytic activity of rhodium diacetate compounds in the decomposition of diazo compounds was discovered by Teyssie in 1973 [12] for a reaction of ethyl diazoacetate with water, alcohols, and weak acids to give the carbene inserted alcohol, ether, or ester product. This was soon followed by cyclopropanation. Rhodium(II) acetates form stable dimeric complexes containing four bridging carboxylates and a rhodium-rhodium bond (Figure 17.8). 

The carbenoid fragment reacts as an electron-deficient carbon centre. Substituents both at rhodium and at the carbene centre can make it more electron-deficient. If the carbenoid is given the choice between a cyclopropanation and C-H insertion reaction, the preference for C-H insertion increases with the electron deficiency [19], Figure 17.10. 

Electrophilic carbene complexes generated from diazoalkanes and rhodium or copper salts can undergo 0-H insertion reactions and S-alkylations. These highly electrophilic carbene complexes can, moreover, also undergo intramolecular rearrangements. These reactions are characteristic of acceptor-substituted carbene complexes and will be treated in Section 4.2. 

Use of Rh2(OAc)4 suggested that there was no inherent selectivity attributable to the coordinated carbene or to rhodium(ll). However, modification of dirhodium(ll) ligands to imidazolidinones provided exceptional diastereocontrol, obtained by influencing the conformational energies of the intermediate metal carbene [19, 23], as well as high enantiocontrol. Representative examples of products from these highly selective intramolecular C-H insertion reactions with cyclic systems is given in Scheme 15.6. Additional examples of effective insertions in systems from which diastereomeric products can result are illustrated in processes of the synthesis of 2-deoxyxylolactone (Scheme 15.7) [64, 65]. Here the conformation of the reactant metal carbene that is responsible for product formation is 32 rather than 33. Other examples in non-heteroatom-bound systems (for example, as in Eq. 15) confirm this preference. 

In cartoon form, what is needed is a ligand that will extend sterically to set up the local C2-symmetry around the apical position of the rhodium, where the carbene binds and where the C-H insertion reaction is taking place. The resulting chiral environment would then favor transition state 52, leading to one enantiomer, over transition state 53, leading to the competing enantiomer. 

Optimized reaction conditions call for the use of Wilkinson s catalyst in conjunction with the organocatalyst 2-amino-3-picoline (60) and a Br0nsted add. Jun and coworkers have demonstrated the effectiveness of this catalyst mixture for a number of reactions induding hydroacylation and C—H bond fundionalization [25]. Whereas, in most cases, the Lewis basic pyridyl nitrogen of the cocatalyst ads to dired the insertion of rhodium into a bond of interest, in this case the opposite is true - the pyridyl nitrogen direds the attack of cocatalyst onto an organorhodium spedes (Scheme 9.11). Hydroamination of the vinylidene complex 61 by 3-amino-2-picoline gives the chelated amino-carbene complex 62, which is in equilibrium with a-bound hydrido-rhodium tautomers 63 and 64. 

Dirhodium(II) tetrakis(carboxamides), constructed with chiral 2-pyrroli-done-5-carboxylate esters so that the two nitrogen donor atoms on each rhodium are in a cis arrangement, represent a new class of chiral catalysts with broad applicability to enantioselective metal carbene transformations. Enantiomeric excesses greater than 90% have been achieved in intramolecular cyclopropanation reactions of allyl diazoacetates. In intermolecular cyclopropanation reactions with monosubsti-tuted olefins, the cis-disubstituted cyclopropane is formed with a higher enantiomeric excess than the trans isomer, and for cyclopropenation of 1-alkynes extraordinary selectivity has been achieved. Carbon-hydro-gen insertion reactions of diazoacetate esters that result in substituted y-butyrolactones occur in high yield and with enantiomeric excess as high as 90% with the use of these catalysts. Their design affords stabilization of the intermediate metal carbene and orientation of the carbene substituents for selectivity enhancement. 

Because these insertion reactions create new bonds at completely unfunctionalized centres, they can be very useful in synthesis. This next carbene is created between two carbonyl groups from a diazocompound with rhodium catalysis and selectively inserts into a C-H bond five atoms away to form a substituted cyclopentanonc. 

Carbene itself ( CH2) is extremely reactive and gives many side reactions, especially insertion reactions (12-21), which greatly reduce yields. This competition is also true with rhodium-catalyzed diazoalkane cyclopropanations (see below). When it is desired to add CH2 for preparative purposes, free carbene is not used, but the Simmons-Smith procedure (p. 1241) or some other method that does not involve free carbenes is employed instead. Halocarbenes are less active than carbenes, and this reaction proceeds quite well, since insertion reactions do not interfereThe absolute rate constant for addition of selected alkoxychlorocar-bene to butenes has been measured to range from 330 to 1 x 10 A few of the many ways in which halocarbenes or carbenoids are generated for... 

As already mentioned for rhodium carbene complexes, proof of the existence of electrophilic metal carbenoids relies on indirect evidence, and insight into the nature of intermediates is obtained mostly through reactivity-selectivity relationships and/or comparison with stable Fischer-type metal carbene complexes. A particularly puzzling point is the relevance of metallacyclobutanes as intermediates in cyclopropane formation. The subject is still a matter of debate in the literature. Even if some metallacyclobutanes have been shown to yield cyclopropanes by reductive elimination [15], the intermediacy of metallacyclobutanes in carbene transfer reactions is in most cases borne out neither by direct observation nor by clear-cut mechanistic studies and such a reaction pathway is probably not a general one. Formation of a metallacyclobu-tane requires coordination both of the olefin and of the carbene to the metal center. In many cases, all available evidence points to direct reaction of the metal carbenes with alkenes without prior olefin coordination. Further, it has been proposed that, at least in the context of rhodium carbenoid insertions into C-H bonds, partial release of free carbenes from metal carbene complexes occurs [16]. Of course this does not exclude the possibility that metallacyclobutanes play a pivotal role in some catalyst systems, especially in copper-and palladium-catalyzed reactions. 

A convenient route to polysubstituted oxazoles was developed through a variation on the Robinson-Gabriel synthesis in which the key 1,4-dicarbonyl compounds were obtained by a rhodium carbene N-H insertion reaction. Dirhodium tetraacetate catalysed reaction of primary amides 103 and diazocarbonyl compounds 107 gave a-acylaminoketones 108, which were converted into 109 by cyclodehydration using the Wipf and Miller protocol <04T3967>. 

Metal catalyzed enantioselective C-H insertions of carbenes have so far not been studies in great detail. Copper catalysts are of no use for this type of reaction, rhodium(Il) catalysts, however, allow intramolecular C-H insertions, for example, in the alkyl group of diazoacetates with longer chains. The formation of five-membered rings such as y-lac-tones is favored. [Rh2(55-mepy)4] affords... 

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