Addition carbon-nitrogen double bonds

Gycloaddition Reactions. Isocyanates undergo cyclo additions across the carbon—nitrogen double bond with a variety of unsaturated substrates. Addition across the C=0 bond is less common. The propensity of isocyanates to undergo cycli2ation reactions has been widely explored for the synthesis of heterocycHc systems. Substrates with C=0, C=N, C=S, and C=C bonds have been found to yield either 2 + 2, 2 + 2 + 2, or 2 + 4 cycloadducts or a variety of secondary reaction products (2). 

Polyurethane Formation. The key to the manufacture of polyurethanes is the unique reactivity of the heterocumulene groups in diisocyanates toward nucleophilic additions. The polarization of the isocyanate group enhances the addition across the carbon—nitrogen double bond, which allows rapid formation of addition polymers from diisocyanates and macroglycols. 

Ester enolates which contain the chiral information in the acid moiety have been widely used in alkylations (see Section D.1.1.1,3.) as well as in additions to carbon-nitrogen double bonds (sec Section D.1.4.2.). Below are examples of the reaction of this type of enolate with aldehydes720. The (Z)-enolate generated from benzyl cinnamate (benzyl 3-phenylpropcnoate) and lithium (dimethylphenylsilyl)cuprate affords the /h/-carboxylic acid on addition to acetaldehyde and subsequent hydrogenolysis, The diastereoselectivity is 90 10. 

The hydrolysis of carbon-nitrogen double bonds involves initial addition of water and elimination of a nitrogen moiety ... 

Related to this process is the hydrolysis of isocyanates or isothiocyanates" where addition of water to the carbon-nitrogen double bond would give an N-substituted carbamic acid (3). Such compounds are unstable and break down to carbon dioxide (or COS in the case of isothiocyanates) and the amine ... 

These enzymes catalyze the addition of the elements of water to carbon-carbon double bonds (C=C), carbon-carbon triple bonds (C C), carbon-nitrogen double bonds (C=N), or carbon-nitrogen triple bonds (C N). These reactions are completely different from oxidoreductases since no redox reactions are involved. Illustrative examples include the following ... 

Efavirenz (1) is the second NNRTI development candidate at Merck. Prior to the development of 1, we worked on the preparation of the first NNRTI development candidate 2 [2]. During synthetic studies on 2, we discovered and optimized an unprecedented asymmetric addition of an acetylide to a carbon-nitrogen double bond. The novel asymmetric addition method for the preparation of 2 also provided the foundation for the process development of Efavirenz . Therefore, in this chapter we will first discuss chemistries for the preparation of 2 in two parts process development of large scale synthesis of 2 and new chemistries. Then, we will move into process development and its chemistries on Efavirenz . 

Acetylide addition in the racemic version Originally, 4equiv of lithium 2-pyridylacetylide (6) in THF/hexane was added to a mixture of 5 and 4equiv of Mg(OTf)2 in Et20 at room temperature. Precoordination with Mg(OTf)2 and 5 was reported to be essential to prevent reduction of the carbon-nitrogen double bond in 5 [2]. However, it turned out that precoordination was unnecessary for this reaction, as shown in Scheme 1.4, and racemic adduct 7 was obtained in 86% yield by treatment with 1.3 equiv of 6 at -15 °C in THF without Mg(OTf)2. 

There are many reports on the asymmetric addition of nucleophiles to carbon-nitrogen double bonds [6]. However, the majority of these reports are based on substrate control and rely on chiral auxiliaries in imines. Moreover, almost all of these reports are just for aldo-imine cases [7]. 

N-AryInitrones (XIII) formed by oxidation of N-hydroxy-N-methyl arylamines, show high reactivity toward carbon-carbon and carbon-nitrogen double bonds in non-aqueous media (21,203) (Figure 10). Under physiological conditions, however, it appears that N-arylnitrones exist as protonated salts that readily hydrolyze to formaldehyde and a primary N-hydroxy arylamine and efforts to detect N-arylnitrone addition products in cellular lipid, protein or nucleic acids have not been successful (204). Nitroxide radicals derived from N-hydroxy-MAB have also been suggested as reactive intermediates (150), but their direct covalent reaction with nucleic acids has been excluded (21). 

A less common reactive species is the Fe peroxo anion expected from two-electron reduction of O2 at a hemoprotein iron atom (Fig. 14, structure A). Protonation of this intermediate would yield the Fe —OOH precursor (Fig. 14, structure B) of the ferryl species. However, it is now clear that the Fe peroxo anion can directly react as a nucleophile with highly electrophilic substrates such as aldehydes. Addition of the peroxo anion to the aldehyde, followed by homolytic scission of the dioxygen bond, is now accepted as the mechanism for the carbon-carbon bond cleavage reactions catalyzed by several cytochrome P450 enzymes, including aromatase, lanosterol 14-demethylase, and sterol 17-lyase (133). A similar nucleophilic addition of the Fe peroxo anion to a carbon-nitrogen double bond has been invoked in the mechanism of the nitric oxide synthases (133). 

The 2,3-, 2,5- and 3,4-dihydropyridines all contain a highly polarized carbon-nitrogen double bond and should be reactive toward nucleophilic reagents. From the limited information in the literature, this appears to be the situation. The 2,3-dihydropyridine is readily reduced by sodium borohydride (equation 58) (64JHC13). Hydride addition occurs in a 1,2 rather than 1,4 sense. 

Reaction of 2-chloropyridine gives 2-chloro-6-fluoropyridine as the major product which arises from the preferential substitution of hydrogen over chlorine and would be unexpected on the basis of the nucleophilic substitution mechanism described above. The product obtained was suggested, therefore, to arise from the addition of fluorine to the most electron rich carbon-nitrogen double bond, followed by elimination of HF [155]. 

Reduction of the Carbon-Nitrogen Double Bond C.AADihydro-addition... 

Diazoalkanes, like azides, are 1,3-dipoles of the propargyl-allenyl type (Scheme 87)15 and their reaction with imines provides a route for building the triazoline framework from the C—N—N and C—N fragments. Although diazomethane addition to the carbon-carbon double bond was achieved by von Pechmann in 1898,325 its reaction toward the carbon-nitrogen double bond was investigated only 50 years later. 

Diazoalkane adds to carbodiimides and ketenimines, preferentially to the carbon-nitrogen double bond of the latter, but the triazoline undergoes spontaneous isomerization to the triazole.367-371 The only exception is the addition of ethyl diazoacetate to benzoyl isocyanate where an isolable... 

Triazolines resulting from diazomethane addition to the carbon-nitrogen double bond in oximes decompose rapidly even at 20°C to give N-alkoxyaziridines.361,362... 

High enantioselectivity has been achieved on addition of diethylzinc to benzaldehyde catalysed by a chiral diamine, (,S )-2-(A,A -disubstitutcd aminomethyl)pyrrolidine,116 and by chiral helical titanate complexes of tetradentate ligands.117 Enantioselective additions of dialkylzinc reagents to A,-(diphcnylphosphiiioyl)imines, promoted by aziridino alcohols,118 and to the carbon-nitrogen double bond of the nitrone 3,4-dihydroisoquinoline A-oxide, promoted by dicyclopentyl(R,R)-tartrate,119 have also been reported. 

Epielwesine. Intramolecular addition of vinylsilanes, catalysed by acid to an appropriately sited carbon-nitrogen double bond, which featured as the key step for the efficient construction of a variety of heterocycles, [86] was successfully applied to the synthesis of ( )-epielwesine (335) (Scheme 49) by Overman et al. [87]. The requisite starting material, the... 

The regiospecificity of the cycloadditions is the same as the regiospecificity of the additions to 50, 65, and 74 with respect to the carbonyl but opposite with respect to the nitrogen of the carbon-nitrogen double bond. The vinylacetate cycloadduct of 6-azauracil has been shown to be as useful intermediate for the synthesis of 5-substituted uracils70. ... 

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