Carbonyl compounds, addition reactions simple reversible additions

Like aldol reactions, the addition of enolates to esters is reversible. 1,3-Dicarbonyl compounds that cannot be deprotonated cleave readily to give two simple carbonyl compounds under basic conditions. The cleavage occurs by addition-elimination, and an enolate acts as a leaving group. 

On a related front, the reactions of carbonyl compounds with metaliated derivatives of 2-methylthia-zoline furnish adducts (85). Although the initial nucleophilic addition occurs smoothly with a wide variety of aldehydes and ketones, the intermediate P-hydroxythiazolines (85) suffer thermal reversion upon attempted purification by distillation. Moreover, attempted cleavage of the corresponding P-hydroxythia-zolidines, which are readily produced from (85) upon dissolving metal reduction (Al-Hg), leads to the formation of p-hydroxy aldehydes only in simple systems numerous complications arising from dimerization, dehydration and retroaldol processes of the products usually intervene. Consequently it is necessary to protect the initial 1,2-adducts (85 = H) as the corresponding 0-methoxymethyl ether... 

If the carbon atom in 3 is electrophilic, then the carbon in 2 must be nucleophilic. This assumption is based on simple bond polarization and it makes it possible to correlate the imaginary 3 with a carbonyl compound that has an electrophilic carbon with a polarized C-0 bond. Nucleophilic acyl addition to a ketone is a known reaction, so 3 correlates with a real molecule—acetone. If 3 correlates with an electrophilic center, then 2 must be a nucleophilic center and an alkyne anion is a reasonable choice. It is known that an alkyne anion will react with a ketone via acyl addition (see Chapter 18, Section 18.3.2). The correlation of 2 with an alkyne simply requires adding a hydrogen atom to the red carbon to give terminal alkyne, 7. Conversion of alkyne 7 to the anion, followed by acyl addition to acetone, should lead to 1. Disconnection of 1 generates acetone and 7, and the reaction of 7 and acetone leads to 1. Recognizing the forward and reverse relationships is essential for correlating the disconnection (retrosynthesis) with the reactions that make the bond (synthesis). 

Reactions of Carbonyl Compounds Simple Reversible Additions... 

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