Carbenes, nucleophilic salts

Base-catalyzed hydrogen exchange occurs at the 3- and 5-positions of 1,2-dimethyl-pyrazolium salts. 2-Unsubstituted 1,3-dithiolylium salts are easily deprotonated by nucleophilic attack of hydrogen. The intermediate carbene easily undergoes dimerization. Hydrogen exchange can also occur (Scheme 23) (80AHC(27)15l). 

The triazole 76, which is more accurately portrayed as the nucleophilic carbene structure 76a, acts as a formyl anion equivalent by reaction with alkyl halides and subsequent reductive cleavage to give aldehydes as shown (75TL1889). The benzoin reaction may be considered as resulting in the net addition of a benzoyl anion to a benzaldehyde, and the chiral triazolium salt 77 has been reported to be an efficient asymmetric catalyst for this, giving the products (/ )-ArCH(OH)COAr, in up to 86% e.e. (96HCA1217). In the closely related intramolecular Stetter reaction e.e.s of up to 74% were obtained (96HCA1899). 

A novel route to 2-fluoropyridines involved the base-induced decomposition of substituted N-fluoropyridinium salts. Abstraction of the 2-H produces a singlet carbene (11) that removes F from a counterion. This is in contrast to the reaction with C nucleophiles, which are fluorinated, and is attributed to the high stability of C—F compared to O—F and N—F (89JOC1726). 

Feldman reported a route to dihydropyrroles, pyrroles, and indoles via the reaction of sulfonamide anions with alkynyliodonium triflates <96JOC5440>. Thus, upon nucleophilic addition of the anion of 91 to the p-carbon of the alkynyliodonium salt, the alkylidene carbene 92 is generated which can the undergo C-H insertion to the desired product 93. 

While the mechanism in the absence of Eti or HI is still a matter of conjecture, it is unlikely that a hydride mechanism was operable since, whereas we could possibly envision an imidazolium salt donating a hydrogen via carbene formation, there is no corresponding viable source of hydride when using pyridinium and phosphonium salts which are also effective solvents for the process. Therefore, by process of elimination, it was more likely that the process was operating via a nucleophilic process. 

Through the use of arenediazonium salts, the straightforward transformation of amines into cross-coupling products can be realized. Whenever the diazonium salts do not tolerate bases and strong nucleophiles (e.g., phosphines), base- and phosphine-free protocols have to be used. Heterocyclic carbene ligands serve well in cross-coupling of Aryl- and vinylboronic acids, or alkylboronates with arenediazonium salts.369,370 Several convenient phosphine-free protocols have been developed for the same purpose.371-373... 

As mentioned in the Introduction, one of the synthetic approaches to stable nucleophilic carbenes involves C-deprotonation of imidazol-ium and related cations with alkali metal salts of strong bases such as NaH and KO Bu. Accordingly, the interactions with alkali metal cations with stable nucleophilic carbenes could prove to be important for understanding the solution behavior of the latter. Until recently, however, there were no examples of complexes of stable carbenes with... 

Metal oxides were also chirally modified and few of them showed a significant or at least useful e.s. Thus, while Al203/alkaloid [80] showed no enantiodifferentiation, Zn, Cu, and Cd tartrate salts were quite selective for a carbene addition (45% e.e.) [81] and for the nucleophilic ring opening of epoxides (up to 85% e.e.) [82], Recently, it was claimed that /(-zeolite, partially enriched in the chiral polymorph A, catalyzed the ring opening of an epoxide with low but significant e.s. (5% e.e.) [83], All these catalysts are notyet practically important but rather demonstrate that amorphous metal oxides can be modified successfully. 

Haloiminium salts can react with metallates or similarly nucleophilic transition metal complexes to yield heteroatom-substituted carbene complexes (Figure 2.7) [120]. This reaction is closely related to the acylation of metallates with derivatives of carboxylic acids (Section 2.1.1.2). Examples are given in Table 2.5. 

Irradiation of matrix-isolated imidazole-2-carboxylic acid gave the 2,3-dihydro-imidazol-2-ylidene-C02 complex (31) characterized by IR spectroscopy and calculated to lie 15.9 kcal mol above the starting material. A series of non-aromatic nucleophilic carbenes (32) were prepared by desulfurization of the corresponding thiones by molten potassium in boiling THF. The most hindered of the series (32 R = Bu) is stable indefinitely under exclusion of air and water and can be distilled without decomposition. The less hindered carbenes slowly dimerize to the corresponding alkenes. Stable aminoxy- and aminothiocarbenes (33 X = O, S) were prepared by deprotonation of iminium salts with lithium amide bases. The carbene carbon resonance appears at 260-297 ppm in the NMR spectrum and an X-ray structure determination of an aminooxycarbene indicated that electron donation from the nitrogen is more important than that from oxygen. These carbenes do not dimerize. 

Attempted formation of the 4-silyl-substituted nucleophilic carbene (111) by deprotonation of the corresponding triazolium salt with KH led to the triazole (112), the product of apparent [1,2]-Si migration.A crossover experiment indicated that silyl transfer is intermolecular. 

In the context of our work in the area of chiral nucleophilic carbenes and their utility in organic synthesis, we have developed a conceptually distinct approach to catalyzed acylation using a-haloaldehydes as acylation precursors. The use of a chiral triazolium salt in the presence of base allows an enantioselective desymme-trization of meio-hydrobenzoin to proceed in 83% ee and good yield ... 

Breslow and co-workers elucidated the currently accepted mechanism of the benzoin reaction in 1958 using thiamin 8. The mechanism is closely related to Lapworth s mechanism for cyanide anion catalyzed benzoin reaction (Scheme 2) [28, 29], The carbene, formed in situ by deprotonation of the corresponding thiazolium salt, undergoes nucleophilic addition to the aldehyde. A subsequent proton transfer generates a nucleophilic acyl anion equivalent known as the Breslow intermediate IX. Subsequent attack of the acyl anion equivalent into another molecule of aldehyde generates a new carbon - carbon bond XI. A proton transfer forms tetrahedral intermediate XII, allowing for collapse to produce the a-hydroxy ketone accompanied by liberation of the active catalyst. As with the cyanide catalyzed benzoin reaction, the thiazolylidene catalyzed benzoin reaction is reversible [30]. 

When 2,2-dichloro-3-phenylpropanal 203 is subjected to standard reaction conditions with chiral triazolium salt 75c, the desired amide is produced in 80% ee and 62% yield Eq. 20. This experiment suggests that the catalyst is involved in an enantioselec-tive protonation event. With this evidence in hand, the proposed mechanism begins with carbene addition to the a-reducible aldehyde followed by formation of activated car-boxylate XLII (Scheme 32). Acyl transfer occurs with HOAt, presumably due to its higher kinetic nucleophilicity under these conditions, thus regenerating the carbene. In turn, intermediate XLin then undergoes nucleophilic attack by the amine and releases the co-catalyst back into the catalytic cycle. 

The use of methanol or ethanol as solvent (or sometimes the molecule of water resulting from the spontaneous dehydration) often leads to the isolation of a Fischer-type alkoxy- or hydroxy-carbene [M]=C(OR)CH=CR R instead of the desired allenylidene. Addition of nucleophiles to allenylidenes dominates the reactivity of these electrophilic groups (see below). Nevertheless, in some cases, the use of silver (I) salts Ag[X] (X = PFg, TfO, BF4 ) results in a more practical and flexible synthetic method since the use of nucleophilic polar solvents can be avoided. 

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