Aldol reactions cerium enolates

Representative examples of the reactions of various carbonyl compounds with Grignard reagents under these conditions are listed in Table 5. It is emphasized that enolization, aldol reaction, ester condensation, reduction and 1,4-addition are remarkably suppressed by the use of cerium chloride. Various tertiary alcohols, which are difficult to prepare by the conventional Grignard reaction, can be synthesized by this method. 

Cerium enolate complexes of type Cl2Ce(OCR=CHR) achieve higher yields in stoichiometric cross-aldol reactions of sterically crowded substrates than the corresponding lithium enolates (Scheme 26). The larger cerium is assumed to be more effective in the inital aldol chelate formation. Formation of oc-bromo-/ -hydroxyketones is also catalyzed [249]. 

Scheme 26. Cross aldol reaction mediated by a cerium enolate complex...

Aldol reaction. Quantitative yields of 1,2-adducts of alkyllithiums to ketones can be obtained at -65° in the presence of Cel,. Cerium enolates, formed by reaction of CeCl, with lithium enolates, also show enhanced reactivity in reactions with carbonyl compounds, particularly ketones. Yields of aldols are increased, but the stereoselectivity remains moderate. ... 

A synthetic application of this cerium chloride methodology has been reported by Nagasawa et al., as shown in Schenne 25. It is noteworthy that aldol reaction of the cerium enolate proceeds in high yields, even though the acceptor carbonyl group is sterically crowded and is readily enolized by lithium enolates. 

The use of lanthanide metal enolates in the aldol reaction has, to date, only been developed to a synthetically useful level in the case of cerium (Scheme S and Table 7). Stereoselectivities are no better than those of lithium enolates, but the cerium enolates of ketones woik well in crossed aldol additions to ketones (Table 7, entries 1-7) and sterically hindered aldehydes (Table 7, entries 9 and 10). Such crossed aldol reactions do not often work well with lithium enolates as enolate equilibration, retroaldolization and steric retardation of addition occur. Imamoto et al. have shown that cerium enolates (44), formed from anhydrous CeCb (1.2 equiv.) and the preformed lithium enolates of ketones in THF at -78 C, undergo such aldol reactions to give the corresponding p-hydroxy ketones (46), usually in high yield. The cerium suppresses the retroaldol reaction by efficient chelation of the aldolate (45). A similar effect is known for zinc halide mediated aldol reactions (Volume 2, (Chapter 1.8). The stereoselectivity of the... 

Table 7 Aldol Reactions of Ketone Cerium Enolates with Aldehydes and Ketones (Scheme 5) ...

The first use of rare earth metals in the aldol reaction began in the case of cerium enolate (198). Subsequently, Kagan and Kobayashi groups reported systematically the use of rare earth metalscatalyzed for the Mukaiyama aldol-type reaction of silyl enol ethers with aqueous formaldehyde solution (199,200). The efficiency of rare earth metals in a Mukaiyama aldol reaction of 1-trimethylsiloxycyclohexene with benzaldehyde was examined in aqueous THF (Scheme 52). Of the rare earth metal trifiates screened, catalytic efficiency was increased in the order of Yb (91%) > Gd (89%) > Lu (88%) > Nd (83%) > Dy (73%) > Er (52%) > Ho(47%) > Sm (46%) > Eu (34%) > Tm (20%) > La (8%) > Y (trace) (201,202). For different aldol or aldol-type reactions, every rare earth metal occupied its special position in the aldol reaction with distinctive catalytic activity. There were several reviews concerning the rare earth metals catalyzed aldol reactions (203,204). New progress in this context will be discussed herein according to rare earth metals catalysis especially for the past 10 years. 

One can infer from this mechanism that a chelating effect (fig. 6) governs the key intermediate this is similar to the mechanism later applied to cerium(IIl)-assisted reductions, and is also closely related to the intermediate proposed as part of the first example of a cross-aldol reaction of cerium enolates (section 4.4). 

Aldol Additions to Ketones. Traditionally, cerium enolates or the Reformatsky-type reaction have been employed to achieve high-yielding aldol additions to enolizable ketones. In this regard, methyl trichlorosilyl ketene acetal provides a reliable alternative for the synthesis of tertiary -hydroxy esters. In the absence of a Lewis base promoter, the aldol additions of 1 to ketones are too slow to be synthetically useful. On the contrary, with pyridine A-oxide as catalyst, methyl trichlorosilyl ketene acetal reacts smoothly with nearly all classes of ketones (7) (Scheme 1). Good yields of the tertiary alcohol products (8) are obtained (eq 4), table 2 from aromatic (entries 1-2 and 4—6), hetereoaromatic (entry 3), olefinic (entries 7-8), acetylenic (entries 9-10), and aliphatic (entries 11-14) ketones. The only poorly performing substrate is 2-tetralone (7o), which affords a 45% yield of the addition product and returns 45% of unreacted starting material, most likely from competitive enolization. 

P-Hydroxy amides. Cerium(III) enolates of amides show better reactivities than the Li enolates toward ketones and aldehydes. Reaction with camphor gives >94% yield of the aldol. 

Steric effects of the hexacarbonyldicobalt moiety may be responsible for altered reactivity, notably enhanced stereoselectivity in reactions of adjacent substituents, e.g. formyl groups in aldol condensations. Thus, condensation of trimethylsilylpropy-nal with the silyl enol ether of cyclopentanone gives a 90% yield of the aldol product (eq 50) as a 40 60 erythro threo mixture, whereas reaction of the Co2(CO)6-complexed aldehyde followed by cerium(IV) oxidation gives the same total yield, but in an 87 13 diastereomeric ratio. ... 

---