Conjugate addition reactions Lithium dimethylcuprate

Cuprate conjugate additions. One step in a recent synthesis of (-t-)-modhephene (3). a natural sesquiterpene with a (3.3.3)propellane skeleton, involved conjugate addition of lithium dimethylcuprate to 1. The desired reaction proved difficult... 

Chelation control has also been implicated in conjugate addition reactions. For example, during a synthesis of the macrolide antibiotic 6-ep/-erythromycin, Mul-zer and co-workers86 found that the stereochemistry at the anomeric centre (l position) of the tetrahydropyranyl protecting group had a profound effect on the stereochemistry of conjugate addition of lithium dimethylcuprate to the ynone 49.1 [Scheme 1.49]. 

There have been many applications of conjugate additions in synthesis. Some representative reactions are shown in Scheme 8.2. Entries 1 and 2 are examples of addition of lithium dimethylcuprate to cyclic enones. The stereoselectivity exhibited in Entry 2 is the result of both steric and stereoelectronic effects that favor the approach syn to the methyl substituent. In particular, the axial hydrogen at C(6) hinders the a approach. 

Due to their high conformational flexibility, chiral acyclic Michael acceptors often display low diastereofacial selectivities in copper-mediated conjugate addition reactions.80 Nevertheless, acceptable levels of diastereoselection can be obtained, in particular with heteroatom-substituted Michael acceptors. For example, treatment of the y-benzyloxymethyl-substituted enoate 100 with lithium dimethylcuprate in the presence of chlorotrimethylsilane gives the anti-adduct 101 with excellent diastereoselectivity (Scheme 26). a Products of this type can be easily... 

Better stereosdectivities have been noted for conjugate addition reactions to the steroidal enone 95 (Scheme 6.20, Tab. 6.2). Irrespective of the enone geometry, addition of lithium dimethylcuprate provided the anti addition product 96 in hi yid-d and with good diastereoselectivity (Tab. 6.2, entries 1 and 2). Interestin y, addition of chlorotrimethylsilane to the reaction mixture had a dramatic effect. The E isomer of enone 95 still gave the anti addition product 96 with perfect stereoselectivity (entry 3). "With the 2 isomer of the enone, however, the syn addition product 97 was formed in good yield and with hi diastereoselect vity (entry 4)... 

Conjugate Addition Reactions.—The use of polymer-bound dialkylcuprates gives comparable or higher than normal yields in the conjugate addition to enones the major advantage lies in the ease of work-up. The mechanism of conjugate addition of cuprates and the mechanism and stereochemistry of the addition of lithium dimethylcuprate to jS-cyclopropyl-substituted enones have been reported. 

Conjugate addition to acyclic (E)- or (Z)-enones. Lithium dimethylcuprate reacts with both the (E)- and (Z)-steroidal 22-ene-24-ones (1) to form only the (22R)- methyl adduct (2). In contrast the same reaction but with added ClSi(CH3)3 and HMPA with (E)-l provides the (22R)-methyl adduct, and with (Z)-l provides the (22S)-methyl adduct. 

The conjugate addition of enolate anions to activated 3-trimethylsilyl-3-buten-2-one helped solve another long-standing problem in organic synthesis by permitting the annulation reaction to be carried out in aprotic solvents under conditions where enolate equilibration is avoided. The annulation of thermodynamically unstable lithium enolates with MVK, where equilibration to the more stable enolate occurs prior to Michael addition, often yields a mixture of stractmal isomers. For exan le, Boeckman successfully employed 3-trimethylsilyl-3-buten-2-one in a Robinson annulation sequence (eq 2). Thus treatment of cyclohexenone with lithium dimethylcuprate in diethyl ether and then with 3-trimethylsilyl-3-buten-2-one gives the desired Michael adduct, which is converted into the functionalized octalone in 52% overall yield. ... 

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