Coupling reactions using metal carbonyls

This chelation-assisted C-H/olefin and C-H/acetylene coupling can be applied to a variety of aromatic compounds with a directing group such as ester, aldehyde, imine, azo, oxazolyl, pyridyl, and nitrile [7]. In this section, we describe the coupling reactions of aromatic carbonyl compounds with olefins using a transition metal catalyst. 

J. E. McMurry, Carbonyl-Coupling Reactions Using Low-Valent Titanium, Chem. Rev. 1989, 89,1513-1524. T. Lectka, The McMurry Recation, in Active Metals (A. Fiirstner, Ed.), 85, VCH, Weinheim, Germany, 1996. 

Well-defined arene complexes of Group 4 metals in various oxidation states have been isolated. The air- and moisture-sensitive complexes Ti(r -arene)2 (56) have a sandwich structure similar to that of the related chromium compounds [176-178]. They have been used for deoxygenation of propylene oxide and coupling reaction of organic carbonyl compounds [179]. The first synthesis of 56 was cocondensation of metal vapor with arene matrix [176]. Two more convenient methods are reduction of TiCl4 with K[BEt3H] in arene solvent [180] and reaction of TiCl4(THF)2 with arene anions followed by treatment with iodine [170,176]. The latter method involves the formation of an anionic titanate complex, [Ti(ri -arene)2] (57), which can also be formed from KH and 56 [181]. 

Carbonyl Coupling Reactions Using Transition Metals, Lanthanides and Actinides"... 

Kahn, B.E., Rieke, R.D. (1988) Carbonyl coupling reactions using transition metals, lanthanides and actinides, Chem. Rev., 88, 733-45. 

In general, imines are too reactive to be used to protect carbonyl groups. In a synthesis of juncusol, however, a bromo- and an iodocyclobexylbnine of two identical aromatic aldehydes were coupled by an Ullmann coupling reaction modified by Ziegler. The imines were cleaved by acidic hydrolysis (aq. oxalic acid, THE, 20°, 1 h, 95% yield). Imines of aromatic aldehydes have also been prepared to protect the aldehyde during ring metalation with. -BuLi. ... 

Transition metal-catalyzed transformations are of major importance in synthetic organic chemistry [1], This reflects also the increasing number of domino processes starting with such a reaction. In particular, Pd-catalyzed domino transformations have seen an astounding development over the past years with the Heck reaction [2] - the Pd-catalyzed transformation of aryl halides or triflates as well as of alkenyl halides or triflates with alkenes or alkynes - being used most often. This has been combined with another Heck reaction or a cross-coupling reaction [3] such as Suzuki, Stille, and Sonogashira reactions. Moreover, several examples have been published with a Tsuji-Trost reaction [lb, 4], a carbonylation, a pericyclic or an aldol reaction as the second step. 

Finally, Nikishin and coworkers have reported that the mediated oxidations of doubly activated methylene compounds can be used to synthesize cyclopropane derivatives (Scheme 17) [30]. Reactions using dimethyl malonate, ethyl cyanoacetate, and malononitrile were studied. Metal halides were used as mediators. When the activated methylene compound was oxidized in the absence of a carbonyl compound, three of the substrate molecules were coupled together to form the hexasubstituted product. Interestingly, when the ethyl cyanoacetate substrate was used the product was formed in a stereoselective fashion (18b). In an analogous reaction, oxidation of the activated methylene compounds in the presence of ketones and aldehydes led to the formation of cyclopropane products that had incorporated the ketone or aldehyde (20). In the case of 19a, the reactions typically led to a mixture of stereoisomers. 

Mass spectrometry has proved extremely useful in determining the composition of various polyferrocene products such as those formed by trimerization of ferrocenylacetylenes (180), reactions of ferrocenyl-acetylenes with metal carbonyls (175), oxidative coupling of ferrocenyl polyacetylenes (179), and lithiation of ferrocene (186). The 1,12-dimethyl-[l,l]ferrocenophane (XC) shows a very strong molecular ion and fragments [M—Me]+ [M—2 Me]+ and the doubly charged species M2+, [M —Me]2+, and [M —2 Me]2+ (197). 

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