Chelation involving enolates

The lithium enolates of a-alkoxy esters exhibit high stereoselectivity, which is consistent with involvement of a chelated enolate.374 39 The chelated ester enolate is approached by the aldehyde in such a manner that the aldehyde R group avoids being between the a-alkoxy and methyl groups in the ester enolate. A syn product is favored for most ester groups, but this shifts to anti with extremely bulky groups. 

Entry 5, where the same stereochemical issues are involved was used in the synthesis of (+)-discodermolide. (See Section 13.5.6 for a more detailed discussion of this synthesis.) There is a suggestion that this entry involves a chelated lithium enolate and there are two stereogenic centers in the aldehyde. In the next section, we discuss how the presence of stereogenic centers in both reactants affects stereoselectivity. 

Diastereoselectivity in the aldol and the conjugate additions of 2 -hydroxy-1,T-binaphthyl ester enolates with a variety of carbonyl electrophiles has also been explored the tendency of the ester enolates, generated by BuLi, to react with aldehydes to give threo products preferentially with high diastereoselectivity has been interpreted in terms of an acyclic transition state of chelated lithium enolate involving the aldehyde carbonyl and the 2 -hydroxy group. 

Conseqnently, the magnesinm chelate 71 can also react as a nucleophilic donor in aldol reactions. In the chemistry involving magnesium chelates, these two aspects model their mode of action as nucleophilic partners in aldol condensations. This is exemplified in aldol condensations of y-diketones . Thus, sodium hydroxyde catalyzed cyclization of diketone 73 to give a mixtnre of 3,5,5-trimethyl-cyclopent-2-enone 74 and 3,4,4-trimethyl-cyclopent-2-enone 75 in a 2.2/1 isomeric ratio (equation 100). When treated with magnesinm methanolate, the insertion of a a-methoxy carbonyl group as control element, as in 76, allows the formation of a chelated magnesium enolate 77, and the major prodnct is now mainly the aldol 78. This latter treated with aqueous NaOH provides the trimethylcyclopent-2-enones 74 and 75 in a 1/49 ratio. 

Returning to the main theme in this section, another case where chelation to a metal centre controls reactions involving enolates is seen in complexes of amino acid derivatives. Amino acids are commonly found in metal complexes as the chelated anions in which the carboxylate oxygen and the amino group are co-ordinated to the metal. The co-ordinated amino acid anion could be in the keto (5.6) or enolate (5.7) form. 

Sn -mediated reactions. Apparently, Li, Zn and Sn overcome thermodynamic dipolar forces which favor the ( ,Z)-orientation through chelation involving the enolate and both carbonyl groups. Without loss of ligand (L), boron or Sn" cannot bind simultaneously the three oxygen atoms from the enolate and the two carbonyls in these cases, the reaction proceeds primarily through a template similar to T with the ( ,Z)-orientation to provide predominantly (131). 

Mukaiyama variant of the Michael reaction and Michael additions of 1,3-diketones to 2-oxo-3-butenoate esters. However, these examples have always involved activation of bidentate electrophiles by Cu(II) followed by the addition of a weak nucleophile to the resultant complex. The attempts to employ bis(oxazoline)copper(II) complexes to catalyze a classical Michael reaction with p-ketoesters and monodentate enones are precedented however, racemic products were obtained in such cases. Interestingly, the Michael reaction developed in our studies is most likely to proceed via reversed activation (Scheme 11). Thus, we proposed that Cu(II) complex H chelates the enol form of p-ketoester 12a, and the resultant chiral enol complex 22 undergoes addition to electrophile (5) to provide 23. It should be noted that the precise mechanism of this reaction and particularly the step for the addition of 22 to 5 to provide 23 are yet to be investigated. 

In the approaches toward a direct asymmetric Mannich reaction by enolate formation with the metal of the catalyst also, the well-proved systems of the analogous aldol reactions were widely applied. Here, it is referred to some of these protocols wherein a metal enolate is involved, as least as assumed and plausible intermediate [183]. Shibasaki and coworkers used a dinuclear zinc complex derived from linked BINOL ligand 371 for catalyst in direct Mannich reactions of a-hydroxy ketones 370 with Af-diphenylphosphinoyl imines 369 to give ti-configured a-hydroxy-P-amino ketones 372 in high yield, diastereoselectivity, and enantioselectivity (Scheme 5.97) [184]. The authors postulate the metal to form a chelated zinc enolate by double deprotonation of the a-hydroxy ketone. This enolate approaches with its Si-face to the Si-face of the imine, as illustrated by the transition state model 373, in agreement with the observed stereochemical outcome. It is remarkable that opposite simple diastereoselectivity arises from the Mannich reaction (anti-selective) and the previously reported syn-selective aldol reaction [185], although the zinc enolates... 

Enolates of phenylglycinol amides also exhibit good diastereoselectivity.97 A chelating interaction with the deprotonated hydroxy group is probably involved here as well. 

Provided that the reaction occurs through a chairlike TS, the E anti/Z syn relationship will hold. There are three cases that can lead to departure from this relationship. These include a nonchair TS, that can involve either an open TS or a nonchair cyclic TS. Internal chelation of the aldehyde or enolate can also cause a change in TS structure. 

Chelation can also be involved in double stereodifferentiation. The lithium enolate of the ketone 7 reacts selectively with the chiral aldehyde 6 to give a single stereoisomer.116 The enolate is thought to be chelated, blocking one face and leading to the observed product. 

Entry 2 involves the use of a sterically biased enol boronate with an a-substituted aldehyde. The reaction, which gives 40 1 facial selectivity, was used in the synthesis of 6-deoxyerythronolide B and was one of the early demonstrations of the power of double diastereoselection in synthesis. In Entry 3, the syn selectivity is the result of a chelated TS, in which the (3-p-methoxybenzyl substituent interacts with the tin ion.120... 

Perhaps the most elusive variant of the aldol reaction involves the addition of metallo-aldehyde enolates to ketones. A single stoichiometric variant of this transformation is known [29]. As aldolization is driven by chelation, intramolecular addition to afford a robust transition metal aldolate should bias the enolate-aldolate equilibria toward the latter [30, 31]. Indeed, upon exposure to basic hydrogenation conditions, keto-enal substrates provide the corresponding cycloal-dol products, though competitive 1,4-reduction is observed (Scheme 22.7) [24 d]. 

Thus, the postulated chelated enolates and their alkylation reaction make the intra-annular chirality transformation possible. This method for enolate formation is the focal point of this chapter, as this is by far the most effective approach to alkylation or other asymmetric synthesis involving carbonyl are compounds. 

The proposed mechanism of the enantiodifferentiation involves chelation of the ester carbonyl oxygen to the enolate as illustrated with A and B66. Transition state B is believed to be destabilized relative to A due to a steric interaction between the a-methyl group and the cyclopentadienyl ligand. The presence of hexamethylphosphoramide reduced the diastereomer-ic ratio to 86 14, supporting the intermediacy of chelated species. 

The cis relative configuration of the major diastereomer was explained by a transition state involving a chelated C-metallated enolate. 

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