Chiral, stereoselective electrophilic attack

The utility of chiral oxazoline enolates in asymmetric synthesis has elegantly been demonstrated by Myers (106,120). The stereoselective aldol condensations of these enolates have been examined in a hmited number of cases (eq. [107]) (32,121). Assuming that the enolate formed has the geometry indicated in 164 (120b), the diastereoselection observed for both the aldol condensation and the previously reported alkylations favors electrophile attack on the Re face as indicated. In contrast, the unsubstituted enolate 163b exhibits significantly poorer diastereoface selection with a range of aldehydes (eq. [108]) (121). 

In an important new application of crown ethers Cram and Sogah have recently reported that potassium bases complexed to chiral crown ethers catalyze the stereoselective Michael addition of a /3- ketoester to methyl vinyl ketone in high optical yields (81CC625). With chiral crown (46), carbanion (47) gave alkylated products with an optical yield of about 99% enantiomeric excess. These impressive results were rationalized by complex structure (48) in which the crown-complexed K+ and the carbanion form an ion pair. One face of the associated carbanion is shielded from electrophilic attack by the flanking binaphthyl groups and the approach of methyl vinyl ketone occurs in a stereoselective manner. 

As a result of obtaining only one stereoisomer in the deprotonation stage of the two solvent systems, the aldehydes obtained after alkylation and hydrolysis are of opposite chirality. Consequently, it is possible to obtain an inversion of product chirality by a change in the reaction conditions, using the same chiral hydrazonic system. Nevertheless, the electrophilic substitution products are not obtained in equivalent enantiomeric excess, in spite of the high stereoselectivity in the deprotonation process, since the substitution process is so much less selective, i.e. the preference for electrophilic attack from one side of the lithium compound is not complete107. 

The chiral 3-fluoroazetidinone 9 was deprotonated with LDA at -90 and methylated without loss of stereochemical integrity at the fluorinated carbon as determined by NMR spectroscopy of the reaction mixture.(14) The very high stereoselectivity at C-3 in the ring could be explained by the steric demand of the bulky dioxolane ring at the C-4 position which directs electrophilic attack. 

Introduction of a double bond between the triple bond and the leaving group leads to enyne electrophiles 45, which would give access to vinylallenes 46 if the attack of the nucleophile takes place at the triple bond in an SN2" (1,5) substitution reaction (Scheme 2.16). In addition to the regioselectivity, two types of stereoselectivity also have to be considered in this transformation, i.e. the configuration of the olefinic double bond of the vinylallene and the (relative or absolute) configuration of the allenic chirality axis. 

The introduction of umpoled synthons 177 into aldehydes or prochiral ketones leads to the formation of a new stereogenic center. In contrast to the pendant of a-bromo-a-lithio alkenes, an efficient chiral a-lithiated vinyl ether has not been developed so far. Nevertheless, substantial diastereoselectivity is observed in the addition of lithiated vinyl ethers to several chiral carbonyl compounds, in particular cyclic ketones. In these cases, stereocontrol is exhibited by the chirality of the aldehyde or ketone in the sense of substrate-induced stereoselectivity. This is illustrated by the reaction of 1-methoxy-l-lithio ethene 56 with estrone methyl ether, which is attacked by the nucleophilic carbenoid exclusively from the a-face —the typical stereochemical outcome of the nucleophilic addition to H-ketosteroids . Representative examples of various acyclic and cyclic a-lithiated vinyl ethers, generated by deprotonation, and their reactions with electrophiles are given in Table 6. 

Although slightly outside the scope of this review, an interesting case of stereoselection should be presented here. It has been observed by Gibson (nee Thomas) and coworkers during the deprotonation of tricarbonylchromium complexes of benzyl alkyl ethers by means of the chiral bis(lithiumamide) base 234 (equation 54) . The base removes the benzylic pro-R-H atom in 233 from the most reactive conformation to form the planary chiral intermediate 235. The attack of the electrophile forming 236 proceeds exclusively from the upper face in 235, because the bulky chromium moiety shields the lower face. Simpkins and coworkers extended the method to the enantioselective substitution of the chromium complexes of 1,3-dihydroisobenzofurans . 

Rotation is hindered in the enolate. Thus, if the a-substituent R1 4= R2, the enolate can exist in two forms, the syn- and anti-forms (enolates 2 and 3, respectively, if R2 has higher priority than R1). Attack of an electrophile on either face of the enolates, 2 or 3, leads to a mixture of the alkylated amides, 4 and 5. If R1 and R2 and the A-substituents R3 and R4 are all achiral, the two alkylated amides will be mirror images and thus a racemate results. If, however, any of the R substituents are chiral, enolate 2 will give a certain ratio of alkylated amide 4/5, whereas enolate 3 will give a different, usually inverted, ratio. Thus, for the successful design of stereoselective alkylation reactions of chiral amide enolates it is of prime importance to control the formation of the enolate so that one of the possible syn- or anti-isomers is produced in large excess over the other,... 

Better inductions by a vicinal amino acid were observed by Ojima and coworkers in the benzylation of chiral /3-lactam ester enolates (255, equation 67) °. Interestingly, the enolate formation occurred at an uncommonly high temperature (0°C) to form the thermodynamic Li-chelated enolate 256, which allowed a stereoselective attack of the electrophile, while the diastereoselectivity with the nonchelated kinetic enolate 259 was significantly lower. Subsequent hydrogenolytic cleavage of lactam 257 delivered S)-a-methylphenylalanine derivative 258 in nearly quantitative yield and high diastereoselectivity. 

To overcome this problem, Whitesell and Felman [19] introduced the use of a C2-symmet-ric chiral auxiliary, (S,S)-trans 2,5-dimethylpyrrolidine, to generate the enamine (reaction E). Rotation around the N-C bond simply results in a topomerization [5] and, therefore, in the reduction of the number of the non-stereocontrolled attacks by the electrophile. Since the appearance of this seminal paper, C2-symmetric reagents have become a standard tool in the hands of the organic chemists interested in stereoselective synthesis [20]. 

As expected from the depicted mechanism, early attempts to control the stereoselectivity of the MBH reaction was focused on the application of chiral amines (Fig. 4.48). Thus, using high pressure conditions (5 kbar) to accelerate the reaction and a C -symmetric DABCO derivative 245 (15 mol%), product 241a (R =Me, R sq-NO CgH ), was obtained in 45% yield and 47% ee (1 mol% hydroquinone, THF, 30°C) [318]. When used with pyrrolizidine derivative 246 (10 mol%, acetonitrile, 0°C) improved results (17-93% yield, 39-72% ee) were obtained in reactions between methyl or ethyl vinyl ketone (237a R =Me and 237b R =Et) and aromatic aldehydes. The presence of NaBF as co-catalyst was required to achieve these results, due to the coordination of aldehyde and hydroxy group of the catalyst to the alkali metal, which fixed the orientation for the attack of the nucleophile to the electrophile in the transition state [319]. 

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