Carbenoids rhodium catalysts

Rhodium carboxylates have been found to be effective catalysts for intramolecular C—H insertion reactions of a-diazo ketones and esters.215 In flexible systems, five-membered rings are formed in preference to six-membered ones. Insertion into methine hydrogen is preferred to a methylene hydrogen. Intramolecular insertion can be competitive with intramolecular addition. Product ratios can to some extent be controlled by the specific rhodium catalyst that is used.216 In the example shown, insertion is the exclusive reaction with Rh2(02CC4F9)4, whereas only addition occurs with Rh2(caprolactamate)4, which indicates that the more electrophilic carbenoids favor insertion. 

Cyclopropanation of C=C bonds by carbenoids derived from diazoesters usually occurs stereospeciflcally with respect to the configuration of the olefin. This has been confirmed for cyclopropanation with copper 2S,S7,60 85), palladium 86), and rhodium catalysts S9,87>. However, cyclopropanation of c -D2-styrene with ethyl diazoacetate in the presence of a (l,2-dioximato)cobalt(II) complex occurs with considerable geometrical isomerization88). Furthermore, CuCl-catalyzed cyclopropanation of cis-2-butene with co-diazoacetophenone gives a mixture of the cis- and trans-1,2-dimethylcyclopropanes 89). 

Cyclopropanation reactions can be promoted using copper or rhodium catalysts or indeed systems based on other metals. As early as 1965 Nozaki showed that chiral copper complexes could promote asymmetric addition of a carbenoid species (derived from a diazoester) to an alkene. This pioneering study was embroidered by Aratani and co-workers who showed a highly enantioselective process could be obtained by modifying the chiral copper... 

Rhodium(II) acetate catalyzes C—H insertion, olefin addition, heteroatom-H insertion, and ylide formation of a-diazocarbonyls via a rhodium carbenoid species (144—147). Intramolecular cyclopentane formation via C—H insertion occurs with retention of stereochemistry (143). Chiral rhodium (TT) carboxamides catalyze enantioselective cyclopropanation and intramolecular C—N insertions of CC-diazoketones (148). Other reactions catalyzed by rhodium complexes include double-bond migration (140), hydrogenation of aromatic aldehydes and ketones to hydrocarbons (150), homologation of esters (151), carbonylation of formaldehyde (152) and amines (140), reductive carbonylation of dimethyl ether or methyl acetate to 1,1-diacetoxy ethane (153), decarbonylation of aldehydes (140), water gas shift reaction (69,154), C—C skeletal rearrangements (132,140), oxidation of olefins to ketones (155) and aldehydes (156), and oxidation of substituted anthracenes to anthraquinones (157). Rhodium-catalyzed hydrosilation of olefins, alkynes, carbonyls, alcohols, and imines is facile and may also be accomplished enantioselectively (140). Rhodium complexes are moderately active alkene and alkyne polymerization catalysts (140). In some cases polymer-supported versions of homogeneous rhodium catalysts have improved activity, compared to their homogenous counterparts. This is the case for the conversion of alkenes direcdy to alcohols under oxo conditions by rhodium—amine polymer catalysts... 

Although C—H insertion reactions rarely occur in intermolecular reactions with diazoacetates, these are common side reactions with diazomalonates3132 (equation 10) and diazo ketones (with a-allyl vinyl ethers).33 Several mechanistic pathways are available to generate the products of an apparent direct C—H insertion reaction and these include dipolar intermediates, ir-allyl complexes and ring opening of cyclopropanes.1 Oxidative problems due to the presence of oxygen are common with copper catalysts, but these are rarely encountered with rhodium catalysts except in systems where the carbenoid is ineffectively captured.34... 

Transition metal catalysts that are effective for carbenoid transformations include those of copper , palladium(II) or platinum(II), eobalt(II), and rhodium(II) (7-3, 6-3), but only copper and rhodium catalysts have been routinely employed. 

On heating the sulfonium ylide 464 (R = H) the isomeric bis(methoxycarbonyl)methyl-thiophene 465 is formed. Thermolysis of the ylide 464 (R = Cl) yields the thienofuran 466. When heated in the presence of copper or rhodium catalysts, 464 (R = Cl) undergoes cleavage of the carbonsulfur bond resulting in the formation of carbenoid intermediates which can trapped with activated aromatic substrates or alkenes to yield the corresponding arylmalonates or cyclopropanes, respectively. 

In contrast to the wealth of chemistry reported for catalyzed reactions of diazocarbonyl compounds, there are fewer applications of diazomethane as a carbenoid precursor. Catalytic decomposition of diazomethane, CH2N2, has been reported as a general method for the methylenation of chemical compounds [12]. The efficacy of rhodium catalysts for mediating carbene transfer from diazoalkanes is poor. The preparative use of diazomethane in the synthesis of cyclopropane derivatives from olefins is mostly associated with the employment of palladium cat-... 

Rhodium-based catalysis suffers from the high cost of the metal and quite often from a lack of stereoselectivity. This justifies the search for alternative catalysts. In this context, ruthenium-based catalysts look rather attractive nowadays, although still poorly documented. Recently, diruthenium(II,II) tetracarboxylates [42], polymeric and dimeric diruthenium(I,I) dicarboxylates [43], ruthenacarbor-ane clusters [44], and hydride and silyl ruthenium complexes [45 a] and Ru porphyrins [45 b] have been introduced as efficient cyclopropanation catalysts, superior to the Ru(II,III) complex Ru2(OAc)4Cl investigated earlier [7]. In terms of efficiency, electrophilicity, regio- and (partly) stereoselectivity, the most efficient ruthenium-based catalysts compare rather well with the rhodium(II) carboxylates. The ruthenium systems tested so far seem to display a slightly lower level of activity but are somewhat more discriminating in competitive reactions, which apparently could be due to the formation of less electrophilic carbenoid species. This point is probably related to the observation that some ruthenium complexes competitively catalyze both olefin cyclopropanation and olefin metathesis [46], which is at variance with what is observed with the rhodium catalysts. 

Diazocarboxylate esters can be transformed by transition metal catalysts such as rhodium(II) acetate into alkoxycarbonylcarbenes that undergo a wide variety of synthetically useful C-H, C-C, C-X, X-H and X-X insertion reactions (where X = heteroatom) [99]. Chemoselectivity of rhodium carbenoids derived from Rh(II) carboxylates and carboxamides has been found to exhibit striking ligand dependency, for example in work by Padwa showing that perfluorocar-boxamide ligands exclusively promoted aromatic C-H insertions in Rh(II)-cat-alyzed decomposition of diazoamides to give oxindoles, whereas a carboxylate-based rhodium catalyst promoted other types of insertions and addition reactions [100]. 

Enantioselective carbenoid cyclopropanation of achiral alkenes can be achieved with a chiral diazocarbonyl compound and/or chiral catalyst. In general, very low levels of asymmetric induction are obtained, when a combination of an achiral copper or rhodium catalyst and a chiral diazoacetic ester (e.g. menthyl or bornyl ester ) or a chiral diazoacetamide ° (see Section 1.2.1.2.4.2.6.3.3., Table 14, entry 3) is applied. A notable exception is provided by the cyclopropanation of styrene with [(3/ )-4,4-dimethyl-2-oxotetrahydro-3-furyl] ( )-2-diazo-4-phenylbut-3-enoate to give 5 with several rhodium(II) carboxylate catalysts, asymmetric induction gave de values of 69-97%. ° Ester residues derived from a-hydroxy esters other than ( —)-(7 )-pantolactone are not as equally well suited as chiral auxiliaries for example, catalysis by the corresponding rhodium(II) (S )-lactate provides (lS, 2S )-5 with a de value of 67%. 

Whereas free singlet carbenes are rather unselective with respect to formation of cyclopropane 22 or ylide 23 and the cyclopropane is favored under conditions that populate the triplet state of a carbene (see Section I.2.I.2.4.2.6.2.), the metal carbenes generated with copper or rhodium catalysts display a selectivity for functional groups which are more nucleophilic than a double bond. Thus, no cyclopropanes are obtained from dialkylallylamines allyl sulfides -allyl dithioacetals , and allyl selenides under carbenoid conditions (copper or rhodium catalysts). 

The cycloprop-2-enecarboxylates 1 rearranged in refluxing benzene in the presence of a rhodium catalyst to produce methylenecyclopentanes 2, apparently by formation of a metal-carbenoid of a ring-opened vinylcarbene, and insertion of this into a 5,6-related C-H bond. ... 

The above result suggested that kinetic resolutions would also be possible with appropriate substrates. When an excess of racemic 2-substituted pyrrolidines were treated with a rhodium catalyst and an aryldiazoacetate, only a single enantiomer of each starting material reacted efficiently with the carbenoid to afford the product... 

Two syntheses of the bioactive small molecule (+)-imperanene (197), isolated from Imperata cylindrica, demonstrate that intra- and intermolecular carbenoid C-H insertion can be used as two different means to the same end. The Doyle group reported an intramolecular approach toward this natural product, with diazoester 198 as the cyclization precursor (Scheme 49, top) [140], In the key event, Rh2(4S -MPPIM)4-catalyzed carbenoid insertion led to lactone 199 in 68% yield and 93% ee. Other rhodium catalysts were found to give inferior yields and enan-tioselectivities. Elaboration of 199 to (-i-)-imperanene provided the natural product in 12 steps and approximately 16% overall yield. 

Fig. 10.3-9 Tryptophan modification using addition to reacting with the aqueous rhodium carbenoids. (a) These species can solvent. Control experiments that were run be formed in situ through the reaction of in the absence of rhodium catalyst afford no...

The selectivity of CH insertion normally increases in the sequence primary<secondary C-H bonds, corresponding to the electrophilic character of carbenoid reagents (Demonceau et al., 1984). Intramolecular CH insertions with rhodium catalysts are synthetically important. 

NH insertions were already known at the time of the exclusive use of copper catalysts for metal-carbene transformations, but, like CH insertions, they became important in synthesis only at the time of growing interest in rhodium catalysts. A breakthrough was the intramolecular carbenoid insertion into the NH bond of azetidin-2-one, catalyzed by [Rh2(OCOCH3)4] (8.127), as it was first described for the synthesis of thienamycin (8.140) by the group of Salzmann (1980) in the Merck laboratories. This synthesis (8-60) opened the way for many related pharmaceutical products of the carbapenem and the carbacephem type (see Maas, 1987, Table 21, p. 201). At an early date, the NH insertion of the parent compound 8.141 was studied... 

Ylide generation from diazo compounds by reaction of carbenoids is a better method than photochemical or thermal dediazoniation in the presence of organic substrates containing heteroatoms, because these dediazoniations without metal catalysis yield, in most cases, not very selective carbenes. Here again, the copper-catalyzed route is in most cases inferior to that with rhodium catalysts. The diazoketo ester with a terminal thioalkyl group (8.145) can be obtained from the... 

The first total synthesis of this natural product was achieved by Chiu and Lam [139]. Key step of the synthesis is a rhodium-catalyzed domino cychza-tion/cycloaddition reaction to form the tricyclic core of the diterpenoid from hnear a-diazoketone 337. Concerning the mechanism of the reaction, it is hkely that the rhodium catalyst, when reacted with 337 at 0 °C, formed a carbenoid species which immediately cyclized to 341 (Scheme 14.53). This 1,3-dipole then underwent an intramolecular cycloaddition with the aUcene to give a mixture of two cycloadducts in 81% yield with 339 as the major product (dr= 1 3.1 338 339). The minor diastereomer 338 was probably formed via a less stable boat conformation of the tether in contrast to the chair conformation shown in 341, leading to the desired product Decreasing the temperature from 0 to —15 °C did not increase the dr but lowered the yield. It is also remarkable that the reaction afforded no more than 0.5 mol% of the rhodium(II)octanoate dimer ([Rh2(Oct)4]). Further transformation of 339 finally furnished (—)-indicol (340) in an overall yield of 10% over 21 steps. 

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