Carboxylic complex esters

In synthetic target molecules esters, lactones, amides, and lactams are the most common carboxylic acid derivatives. In order to synthesize them from carboxylic acids one has generally to produce an activated acid derivative, and an enormous variety of activating reagents is known, mostly developed for peptide syntheses (M. Bodanszky, 1976). In actual syntheses of complex esters and amides, however, only a small selection of these remedies is used, and we shall mention only generally applicable methods. The classic means of activating carboxyl groups arc the acyl azide method of Curtius and the acyl chloride method of Emil Fischer. 

Oxygen-Gontaining Organics. Neutral and anionic oxygen-containing organic molecules form a wide variety of complexes with uranium. Much work has focused on alkoxides (222), aryloxides and carboxylates complexes with alcohols, ethers, esters, ketones, aldehydes, ketoenolates, and carbamates are also well known. 

The reaction of alcohols with CO was catalyzed by Pd compounds, iodides and/or bromides, and amides (or thioamides). Thus, MeOH was carbonylated in the presence of Pd acetate, NiCl2, tV-methylpyrrolidone, Mel, and Lil to give HOAc. AcOH is prepared by the reaction of MeOH with CO in the presence of a catalyst system comprising a Pd compound, an ionic Br or I compound other than HBr or HI, a sulfone or sulfoxide, and, in some cases, a Ni compound and a phosphine oxide or a phosphinic acid.60 Palladium(II) salts catalyze the carbonylation of methyl iodide in methanol to methyl acetate in the presence of an excess of iodide, even without amine or phosphine co-ligands platinum(II) salts are less effective.61 A novel Pd11 complex (13) is a highly efficient catalyst for the carbonylation of organic alcohols and alkenes to carboxylic acids/esters.62... 

Limited progress has been achieved in the enantioselective hydrogenation of a,/ -unsaturated carboxylic acid esters, amides, lactones, and ketones (Scheme 26.10). The Ru-BINAP system is efficient for the hydrogenation of 2-methy-lene-y-butyrolactone, and 2-methylene-cyclopentanone [98]. With a dicationic (S)-di-t-Bu-MeOBIPHEP-Ru complex under a high hydrogen pressure, 3-ethoxy pyr-rolidinone could be hydrogenated in isopropanol to give (R)-4-ethoxy-y-lactam in 98% ee [39]. 

The first synthetically useful reaction of titanium complexes of type 4, leading to the formation of two new carbon—carbon bonds, was developed by Kulinkovich et al. [55]. They found that treatment of a carboxylic acid ester with a mixture of one equivalent of titanium tetraisopropoxide and an excess of ethylmagnesium bromide at —78 to —40 °C affords 1-alkylcyclopropanols 9 in good to excellent yields (Scheme 11.2) [55,56], This efficient transformation can also be carried out with sub-stoichiometric amounts of Ti(OiPr)4 (5—10 mol%) [57,58]. In this case, an ethereal solution of two equivalents of EtMgBr is added at room temperature to a solution containing the ester and Ti(OiPr)4. Selected examples of this transformation are presented in Table 11.1 (for more examples, see ref. [26a]). 

Other recent reports have also indicated that mixed-metal systems, particularly those containing combinations of ruthenium and rhodium complexes, can provide effective catalysts for the production of ethylene glycol or its carboxylic acid esters (5 9). However, the systems described in this paper are the first in which it has been demonstrated that composite ruthenium-rhodium catalysts, in which rhodium comprises only a minor proportion of the total metallic component, can match, in terms of both activity and selectivity, the previously documented behavior (J ) of mono-metallic rhodium catalysts containing significantly higher concentrations of rhodium. Some details of the chemistry of these bimetallic promoted catalysts are described here. 

The first term, representing acid-"catalyzed" hydrolysis, is important in reactions of carboxylic acid esters but is relatively unimportant in loss of phosphate triesters and is totally absent for the halogenated alkanes and alkenes. Alkaline hydrolysis, the mechanism indicated by the third term in Equation (2), dominates degradation of pentachloroethane and 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane, even at pH 7. Carbon tetrachloride, TCA, 2,2-dichloropropane, and other "gem" haloalkanes hydrolyze only by the neutral mechanism (Fells and Molewyn-Hughes, 1958 Molewyn-Hughes, 1953). Monohaloalkanes show alkaline hydrolysis only in basic solutions as concentrated as 0.01-1.0 molar OH- (Mabey and Mill, 1978). In fact, the terms in Equation(2) can be even more complex both elimination and substitution pathways can operate, leading to different products, and a true unimolecular process can result from initial bond breaking in the reactant molecule. 

Fig. 3.18. Mechanistic details on the transition-metal catalyzed (here Cu-catalyzed) cyclopropanation of styrene as a prototypical electron-rich alkene. The more bulky the substituent R of the ester group C02R, the stronger is the preference of transition state A over D and hence the larger the portion of the trans-cyclo-propane carboxylic acid ester in the product mixture.—The zwitterionic resonance form B turns out to be a better presentation of the electrophilic character of copper-carbene complexes than the (formally) charge-free resonance form C or the zwitterionic resonance form (not shown here) with the opposite charge distribution ( a to the C02R substituent, on Cu) copper-carbene complexes preferentially react with electron-rich alkenes.

In the presence of an electrophile, tautomerization of a substrate with a C=0 double bond to its enol only takes place when catalyzed by either a Bronsted- or a Lewis acid. The proton-catalyzed mechanism is shown for the ketone — enol conversion B — iso-B (Figure 12.4), the carboxylic acid —> enol conversion A — E (Figure 12.6), the carboxylic acid bromide — enol conversion E —> G (Figure 12.7) and the carboxylic acid ester — enol conversion diethyl-malonate —> E (Figure 12.9). Each of these enol formations is a two-step process consisting of the protonation to a carboxonium ion and the latter s deprotonation. The mechanism of a Lewis acid-catalyzed enolization is illustrated in Figure 12.5, exemplified by the ketone —> enol conversion A —> iso-A. Again, a protonation to a carboxonium ion and the latter s deprotonation are involved the Lewis acid-complexed ketone acts as a proton source (see below). 

The reaction of cyclohexenamides with nucleophiles such as water, alcohols, or thiols, produced carboxylic acid, esters, or thioesters. Reaction with acetylenic dipolarophiles in acidic conditions produced highly functionalized pyrroles via a complex mechanism, implying as intermediates 1,3-dipoles and bycyclic cycloaddition products. Reaction of cyclohexenamides containing protected hydroxylic functions with AcCl/MeOH produced < -lactones, while cyclohexenamides, bearing in Ri an o-aminophenyl group, easily cyclized to 1, 4-benzodiazepine-2, 5-diones. 

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