Carbonates, Mitsunobu reactions

The major application of the Mitsunobu reaction is the conversion of a chiral secondary alcohol 1 into an ester 3 with concomitant inversion of configuration at the secondary carbon center. In a second step the ester can be hydrolyzed to yield the inverted alcohol 4, which is enantiomeric to 1. By using appropriate nucleophiles, alcohols can be converted to other classes of compounds—e.g. azides, amines or ethers. 

Isothioureas can be prepared on insoluble supports by S-alkylation or S-arylation of thioureas (Entry 7, Table 14.6). Further methods for the preparation of isothioureas on insoluble supports include the N-alkylation of polystyrene-bound, A/,/V -di(alkoxy-carbonyl)isothioureas with aliphatic alcohols by Mitsunobu reaction (Entry 7, Table 14.6) and the addition of thiols to resin-bound carbodiimides [7]. Resin-bound dithio-carbamates, which can easily be prepared from Merrifield resin, carbon disulfide, and amines [76], react with phosgene to yield chlorothioformamidines, which can be converted into isothioureas by treatment with amines (Entry 8, Table 14.6). The conversion of support-bound a-amino acids into thioureas can be accompanied by the release of thiohydantoins into solution (see Section 15.9). The rate of this cyclization depends, however, on the type of linker used and on the nucleophilicity of the intermediate thiourea. 

Treatment of y-nitro alcohols with diethyl azodicarboxylate DEAD and triphenylphos-phine affords nitrocyclopropanes with inversion of configuration at the a-carbon via the intramolecular Mitsunobu reaction involving carbon nucleophiles stabilized by the nitro group (equation 16)28. The reaction works best with nitro compounds (pA"a < 17) and is not applicable to the sulfonyl derivatives (pATa 25). 

Dinsmore and Mercer further investigated this reaction using DBU as a base and n-Bu3P/DBAD (di-tert-butyl azodicarboxylate) as Mitsunobu s reactants, and found an unexpected steroselectivity in the Mitsunobu transformation [75b], In fact, the stereochemical course of the Mitsunobu reaction (Scheme 6.11) depended on whether the carbamic acid intermediate was N-substituted with hydrogen (retention) or with carbon (inversion). 

HSAB is particularly useful for assessing the reactivity of ambident nucleophiles or electrophiles, and numerous examples of chemoselective reactions given throughout this book can be explained with the HSAB principle. Hard electrophiles, for example alkyl triflates, alkyl sulfates, trialkyloxonium salts, electron-poor car-benes, or the intermediate alkoxyphosphonium salts formed from alcohols during the Mitsunobu reaction, tend to alkylate ambident nucleophiles at the hardest atom. Amides, enolates, or phenolates, for example, will often be alkylated at oxygen by hard electrophiles whereas softer electrophiles, such as alkyl iodides or electron-poor alkenes, will preferentially attack amides at nitrogen and enolates at carbon. 

Hydroxypyridines are readily alkylated under a variety of conditions. Mitsunobu reaction with alcohols occurs selectively at oxygen in the presence of PPh3 and DEAD in THF at room temperature <2003TL725>. The 3-hydroxy group may be selectively alkylated in the presence of aliphatic hydroxyl groups. Pyridine 104 is alkylated at the aromatic position with dodecyl bromide in the presence of potassium carbonate in DMF at 95 °C <20030BC644> (Equation 70). 

Three different strategies have been envisaged. The chiral information can either be incorporated into the alkyne or linked to the heteroatom or to the a,/ -unsaturated substituent at the carbene complex carbene carbon. High diastereoselectivities (57a 57b >96 4) have been observed in reactions of vinyl carbene complex 55 with the chiral propargylic ether 56 bearing the bulky trityloxy substituent [57a]. A more general approach is based on chiral alcohols incorporated into the alkoxycarbene complex. Upon benzannulation with tert-butylethyne, the menthyloxy carbene complex 58 gave a diastereoselectivity of 10 1 in favor of the naphthalene tricarbonylchromium complex 59a [57c, 57d]. Finally, the tandem benzannulation-Mitsunobu reaction of optically active carbene complex 60 with 5-hexyn-l-ol afforded the anti-benzoxepine complex 61 as the only diastereomer (Scheme 23) [57b]. 

Biocatalysts are being applied widely in the industry, including the preparation of carbon-carbon bonds. Stereoselective oxidation with biocatalysts is an area where chemistry will find it hard to compete. A need still exists for new catalysts to replace stoichiometric reagents, as in the reduction of an amide to an amine, amide formation, and substitution of an alcohol (Mitsunobu reaction) (258). In both arenas of catalysis, the overall goal for green chemistry and stereoselectivity must be carbon-hydrogen bond activation. 

Side-chain anchoring of protected Asp or Glu to the Phacm resin 5 can take place with both low yields and substantial levels of epimerization at the a-carbon. The best route to overcome these problems is to use the corresponding cesium or zinc salts in conjunction with bromomethylbenzyl resins,or through a Mitsunobu reaction using triphenylphosphine and DEAD.[i 2]... 

The following esterification is an example of the Mitsunobu reaction. PROBLEM 3.22 Notice that there is inversion of configuration at the asymmetric carbon bearing the alcohol group in the starting material. 

The naturaiiy occurring potent antitumor antibiotic (+)-duocarmycin A, its epimer, and unnatural enantiomers were prepared by D.L. Boger et al." The last step of the synthesis was the elaboration of the reactive cyclopropane moiety, which was carried out via a transannular spirocyclization using Mitsunobu conditions. This is a special case when the Mitsunobu reaction is utilized to create new carbon-carbon bonds. 

Kodaka, M., Tomohiro, T., Okuno, H. The mechanism of the Mitsunobu reaction and its application to carbon dioxide fixation. J. Chem. 

The Mitsunobu reaction has been used previously to prepare 5 -0-acylnucle-osides and nucleoside 5 -phosphates [111, 112]. With purine nucleosides, the approach failed (< 1 % yields) in the preparation of 5 -phosphates, the main product being N3,5"-cyclonucleosides resulting from an intramolecular nucleophilic attack by a purine ring nitrogen atom on the 5 -carbon atom. The predominant formation of the purine cyclonucleosides was attributed to electrostatic interactions between the phosphorus cation and the purine base which brought the reaction sites (5 and 3-N) close enough to favor cyclization [113]. 

A series of novel 3 -thiacarbocyclic nucleosides 240, carrying purine and pyrimidine bases, have been prepared from D-glucose. The key steps were the treatment of dimesylate 237 with Na2S, inversion at C-4 by the Mitsunobu reaction (BzOH, PhsP, and DEAD), and coupling of mesylate 239 with the nucleoside base in the presence of potassium carbonate, followed by deprotection. None of these nucleoside were active against HIV-1. 

---