Carbenes, thiazoles

Very few reactions of carbenes with heterocyclic systems containing more than one hetero atom have been studied. They are confined to variants of the Reimer-Tiemann formylation of thiazoles, pyra-zoles, iminazoles, and indolizines/ and ring expansion does not appear to have been observed. 

The Group VI organometallic chemistry is mainly characterized by the occurrence of N- and C-coordination and carbene complex-formation, as well as by some unique cases of Se- (Te-) coordination, ring opening and deselenation. The Group VII organometallic chemistry is known for the carbene and chelate structures of the derivatized thiazoles. 

Despite the numerous reports concerning NHC-Ru olefin metathesis initiators, a complex incorporating a carbene that has only one exocyclic substituent adjacent to the carbenic centre was not reported until 2008. Studies by Grubbs and co-workers led to the development of ruthenium-based catalysts bearing such carbene ligands, in this case incorporating thiazole-2-ylidenes [63] (Fig. 3.19). 

Imidazolines are also formed in silver cyanide-catalyzed cyclization of alkyl isocyanides with aliphatic diamines (Scheme 103).169 This simple synthesis can be applied in a general way with difunctional nucleophiles and has been used to prepare benzimidazoles, oxazoles, thiazoles, and oxazines.169 It is suggested that transient carbene complexes are formed in these reactions (cf. 87 in Scheme 103) but further work is required to ascertain the mechanism and scope of these processes. 

The most common ligands are those derived from imidazole and benzimidazol (Scheme 54), followed by the (benz)thiazols. The free Wanzlick-Arduengo carbenes can be isolated and employed for the synthesis of the complexes, but often it is more convenient to prepare the carbenes in situ from the dimers or the corresponding onium salts, or to use carbene-transfer reactions.256-259... 

It is noteworthy that both types of reactions can also be applied to prepare (carbene)gold(m) compounds A-alkyl-thiazolium salts react with HAuG14 or NaAuCl4, followed by the addition of base, to give (thiazol-2-ylidene)gold(m)... 

Lithiated thiazols react with (Ph3P)AuGl to a neutral gold thiazolate, which upon alkylation is transformed into the cationic carbene complex, while the reaction with (tht)AuC6Fs followed by alkylation leads to the neutral complex (Scheme 65).260... 

One Au-C bond in bis(thiazol-2-ylidene)gold cations is cleaved in the reaction with elemental iodine to give the corresponding (carbene)AuI complex and a 2-iodo-thiazolium salt, while chlorine and bromine oxidize the gold center to the gold(m) state.267... 

The only problem for the matrix-isolation of 21 consisted in the non-availability of a reasonable diazo precursor molecule suited for this technique. But since we already had experience with the preparation of 2,3-dihydrothiazol-2-ylidene46 (see below) by photofragmentation of thiazole-2-carboxylic acid we tried the same method with imidazole-2-carboxylic acid (20). Indeed, irradiation of 20 with a wavelength of 254 nm leads to decarboxylation and the formation of a complex between carbene 21 and CO2. This is shown by the observation that the experimental IR spectrum fits only with the calculated spectrum of complex 21-CC>2 (calculated stabilization energy relative to its fragments 4.3 kcal mol-1). The type of fixation of CO2 to 21 is indicated in the formula S-21 C02. 

In addition to palladium catalysts, Co(OAc)2 shows a catalytic activity for the arylation of heterocycles, including thiazole, oxazole, imidazole, benzothiazole, benzoxazole, and benzimidazole.78 As shown in Scheme 6, the catalytic system Co(OAc)2/9/Cs2C03 gives G5 phenylated thiazole, while the bimetallic system Co(OAc)2/CuI/9/Cs2C03 furnishes the G2 phenylated thiazole. The rhodium-catalyzed reaction of heterocycles such as benzimidazoles, benzoxazole, dihydroquinazoline, and oxazoline provides the arylation product with the aid of [RhCl(coe)]2/PCy3 catalyst.79 The intermediacy of an isolable A-heterocyle carbene complex is proposed. 

Since this discovery, a few types of other stable singlet carbenes have been described and reviewed5 imidazol-2-ylidenes,6 l,2,4-triazol-3-yli-denes,7 imidazolidin-2-ylidenes,8 acyclic diaminocarbenes,9 thiazol-2-yli-denes,10 and acyclic aminooxy- and aminothiocarbenes.11... 

Apart from imidazol-2-ylidenes (IV), eight other types of carbenes are included in this category imidazolidin-2-yhdenes (III), tetrahydropyrimid-2-yhdene (V)," ° benzimidazol-2-ylidene (VI)," l,2,4-triazol-5-ylidene (VII)," l,3-thiazol-2-yli-denes (VIII), as well as acyclic diamino- aminooxy- and aminothio-carbenes (XI) (Fig. 8.5). 

However, besides the work by Wanzlick, several examples of aminocarbene dimerizations have been reported." Noteworthy is the isolation of both the thiazol-2-ylidene (Villa) and of its dimer VIIIa 2" and the spectroscopic characterization by Alder and Blake of the bis(A-piperidinyl)carbene (IXb) and of the tetrakis(A-piperidinyl)ethene ( IXb 2) (Scheme 8.12). 

The dihydrothiazol-2-ylidene (4) was generated by photolysis of matrix-isolated thiazol-2-carboxylic acid.12 Calculations suggested that the barrier to isomerization to thiazole is about 42.3 kcal mol 1 and that the carbene resembles the related imidazol-2-ylidene in structure. An ab initio study of hydroxyoxiranone predicted that the decarboxylation of the zwitterion (5) to form hydroxycarbene (6) would be favourable in vacuo but not in water.13 A theoretical study showed that dihalosulfenes (X2C=S02) are best viewed as dihalocarbenc-SO complexes with a carbon-sulfur bond order of approximately zero.14 hi a study directed at the elusive thionformic acid (7), tandem mass spectrometric methods were applied to isomeric ethyl thioformates.15 The results suggest that the radical cations generated have the carbene structure [(HS)C(OH)]+ ... 

Scheme 61, yielded thiazole 200 as the major product, along with minor amounts of carbinol 201 [152]. On the other hand, treatment of the imine formed from 199 and p-methoxyphenylamine with catalytic tetrabutylammonium cyanide, produced suc-cinimide derivative 202. In both cases, the process is initiated by nucleophilic attack to the carbaldehyde C=0 (or azomethine s C=N) group, which is followed up by an anionic rearrangement. A variation of the above process using as catalysts /V-heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) derived from base treatment of azolium, imidazo-lium, or triazolium salts, has also been developed to access gem-disubstituted succinimides [153, 154]. Unfortunately, an attempt of kinetic resolution of racemic 4-formyl (3-lactams by using chiral NHC resulted in moderate selectivities only [154]. 

Enders D, Kallfass U (2002) An efficient nucleophilic carbene catalyst for the asymmetric benzoin condensation. Angew Chem Int Ed 41 1743-1745 Enders D, Niemeier O (2004) Thiazol-2-ylidene catalysis in intramolecular crossed aldehyde-ketone benzoin reactions. Synlett 2004 2111-2114 Enders D, Niemeier O, Balensiefer T (2006) Asymmetric intramolecular crossed-benzoin reactions by N-heterocyclic carbene catalysis. Angew Chem Int Ed 45 1463-1467... 

Lappert developed the thermolysis of an electron-rich olefin in the presence of a transition metal complex as another way to synthesise these compounds [4], When, in 1975, Clarke and Taube published their findings on carbon coordinated purine transition metal complexes [5], transition metal NHC complexes with functionalised NHC made their debut in biochemistry. The chemistry of carbenes from natural products became firmly established following the discovery that the catalytic activity of thiamine (vitamin Bl) is based on the intermediate formation of a carbene derived from thiazole [6-9] (see Figure 1.2). 

The mechanism of this reaction was hrst described by Breslow as early as 1958 [4], Subsequently, the natural enzyme thiamine, found in yeast, was replaced by related nucleophiles like thiazole [5,6], triazole [7] and imidazole [8], Reactions that follow this mechanism include the very important Stetter reaction (the benzoin condensation of aliphatic aldehydes), the Michael-Stetter reaction (a variant of the Stetter reaction where the aldehyde reacts with an a,P-unsaturated ketone) [1], transesteriflcations [9] or the acylation of alcohols [9,10], All four reactions are carbene catalysed nucleophilic acylation processes. 

The Enders research group realised that an increased nucleophilicity on the carbene carbon atom would improve the benzoin condensation overall and might give the necessary impetus to break the apparent deadlock by initially increasing the yield and in its wake the chiral resolution. This was achieved by switching to triazole based NHC instead of the less nucleophilic thiazole based NHC (see Figure 6.3) [17-19]. The scheme proved to be successful as an ee of 75% (R) in 66% yield and a catalyst loading of 1.25 mol% could be achieved. 

How close the stability of the monomeric 3-(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)thiazol-2-ylidene actually is at its dimerisation limit was demonstrated by Arduengo et al. in an attempt to synthesise the less bulky 3-(mesityl)thiazol-2-ylidene. When the monomer was generated at low temperatures using Bu OK as the base, it dimerised at temperatures above 0°C in solution, whereas synthesis at ambient temperature using KH [same reaction conditions as for 3-(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)thiazol-2-ylidene] resulted in the dimer exclusively [2]. With a methyl group on the nitrogen atom, the intermediate carbene monomer could no longer be unequivocally detected even at low temperatures. 

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