Chelation effects aldol addition reactions

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... 

Trimethylsilyloxyfuran 338 has shown promise as a masked butenolide fragment To fuUy exploit these qualities, the threo versus erythro (339 vs 340) diastereoselectivity in aldol-type additions has to be controlled. In fact it has been shown that this is easily achieved by appropriate reaction conditions. Applying Mukaiyama conditions (i.e., using the silyl enol ether as the donor in the presence of a Lewis acid such as TESOTf to generate oxonium species) leads to threo preference for 339, presumably via an open transition state, whereas desilylation with TBAF generates the erythro-diastereomer 340, this time via a closed Diels-Alder (or Zimmerman-Traxler)-like transition state. In both cases, chelating effects can be ruled out... 

In the discussion of the stereochemistry of aldol and Mukaiyama reactions, the most important factors in determining the syn or anti diastereoselectivity were identified as the nature of the TS (cyclic, open, or chelated) and the configuration (E or Z) of the enolate. If either the aldehyde or enolate is chiral, an additional factor enters the picture. The aldehyde or enolate then has two nonidentical faces and the stereochemical outcome will depend on facial selectivity. In principle, this applies to any stereocenter in the molecule, but the strongest and most studied effects are those of a- and (3-substituents. If the aldehyde is chiral, particularly when the stereogenic center is adjacent to the carbonyl group, the competition between the two diastereotopic faces of the carbonyl group determines the stereochemical outcome of the reaction. 

Since it had been determined that ketone or aldehyde functionality was not directly accessible from chiral A/-acyloxazolidinones, the transamination-metal alkyl addition procedure provided a conveniently expeditious alternative. The first step, transamination, proceeded in high yield by introduction of the N-acyloxazolidinone into a solution of the aluminum amide in dichloromethane at -IS C. The reaction is favored by the presence of a-heteroatom substituents and by -alcohol functionality (aldol adducts). Acceleration of the transamination in the latter case is most likely due to formation of a chelated intermediate (5) which serves to activate only the exocyclic carbonyl towards attack (equation 4). Because of the indicated activation, these aldol adducts are often the best substrates for this permutation. The effectiveness of the transamination in the case of (4) is noteworthy, as retroaldol fragmentation of this substrate usually occurs under mild base catalysis. 

Although a majority of the catalytic complexes employed in the aldol reaction are bidentate, Carreira and coworkers published the synthesis of a new chiral tridentate chelating ligand for the efficient asymmetric induction of stereochemistry in aldol adducts. The Ti(IV) complex 68, an analog of the BINOL catalyst previously mentioned, was further stabilized by 3,5-di-tert-butylsalicyclic acid as a counterion to increase the yields, selectivity, and efficiency of the asymmetric reaction. This new catalyst is particularly effective in the addition of either O-trimethylsilyl, or O-ethyl, or O-methyl ketene to both aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes enantioselectively to obtain the respective aldol adduct. For example, the reaction of the silylketene acetal 90 with the aromatic aldehyde 89 in the presence of 68 obtains the aldol adduct 91 in high yield (91%) and excellent enantioselectivity (97% ee). 

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