Conjugate addition organometallics

House investigated the role of cuprous ions in the conjugate addition of organometallic reagents. He found that the catalytic effect can be explained by the intervention of a methyl copper derivative, which reacts rapidly with the carbon-carbon double bonds of the conjugated system. 

Deletion of the 17a-hydroxy group similarly leads to an effective topical antiinflammatory agent. Treatment of 16a-methylpregnenolone (244) (obtained by conjugate addition of an organometallic to pregnenolone) sequentially with bromine and acetate ion affords the 21 acetate, 245 (see, for example, the transformation of 196 to 198). In an interesting variation on the method for the introduction of a fluorine atom at 6, the... 

I.5.2.I.I.4. Conjugate Addition of Chiral Organometallic Reagents External Stoichiometric Chiral Ligands... 

TABLE 6. Conjugate addition of organometallic reagents to vinyl sulfones55... 

Deprotonation of the vinylic proton is a serious side-reaction in the conjugate addition of organometallic reagents to y-siloxy-a, /J-unsaturated sulfones (89)63b. The use of the... 

Tomioka K, Nagaoka Y (1999) Conjugate addition of organometallic reagents. In Jacobsen EN, Pfaltz A, Yamamoto H (eds) Comprehensive asymmetric catalysis, vol 3. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, chap 31.1... 

Another very important method for specific enolate generation is the conjugate addition of organometallic reagents to enones. This reaction, which not only generates a specific enolate, but also adds a carbon substituent, is discussed in Section 8.1.2.3. 

Other bonds that merit attention are those connecting C(7) through C(ll). These could be formed by one of the many methods for the synthesis of ketones. Bond disconnections at carbonyl centers can involve the 0=C-C(a) (acylation, organometallic addition), the C(a)-C((3) bond (enolate alkylation, aldol addition), or C((3)-C(7) bond (conjugate addition to enone). 

The term carbometallation was most probably coined only about a quarter of a century ago.1 However, the history of those reactions that can be classified as carbometallation reactions is much older. If one includes not only the Ziegler-Natta-type organometallic alkene polymerization reactions2 but also various types of organometallic conjugate addition reactions,3 carbometallation collectively is easily more than a century old. In its broadest definition, carbometallation may be defined as a process of addition of a carbon-metal bond to a carbon-carbon multiple bond. As such, it may represent either a starting material-product relationship irrespective of mechanistic details or an actual mechanistic microstep of carbon-metal bond addition to a carbon-carbon metal multiple bond irrespective of the structure of the product eventually formed. 

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