Crotyl pinacol boronate

A new protocol has been introduced to improve selectivity in allylboration of aldehydes. The readily available a-substituted allyl or crotyl pinacol boronic esters often give low A/Z-selectivity. Addition of -butyllithium followed by trapping of alkoxide with TFAA generates an allyl borinic acid, which gives very high -selectivity, and in some cases, this is the opposite of the standard conditions. The borinic ester intermediate was characterized by B-NMR. 

The additions of allyl-, crotyl-, and prenylborane or -boronate reagents to aldehydes are among the most widely studied, well developed, and powerful reactions in stereoselective synthesis. The additions not only display excellent levels of absolute induction in enantioselective synthesis, but also exhibit superb levels of reagent control in diastereoselective additions. The additions of ( )- or (Z)-crotyl pinacol boronates to aldehydes have been observed to give predominantly 1,2-anti- and 1,2-syn-substituted products, respectively (Scheme 5.3) [31, 50]. The inherent stereospecificity of the reaction is consistent with a closed, cyclic Zimmerman-Traxler transition state structure [51], In the accepted model, coordination of the aldehyde to the allylation reagent results in synergistic activation of both the electrophile and the nucleophile... 

The use of chiral Br0nsted acids is illustrated in Eq. 93 as a method for catalyst-controlled double diastereoselective additions of pinacol allylic boronates. Aside from circumventing the need for a chiral boronate, these additions can lead to very good amplification of facial stereoselectivity. For example, compared to both non-catalyzed (room temperature, Eq. 90) and SnCU-catalyzed variants, the use of the matched diol-SnCU enantiomer at a low temperature leads to a significant improvement in the proportion of the desired anti-syn diastereomer in the crotylation of aldehyde 117 with pinacolate reagent (Z)-7 (Eq. 93). Moreover, unlike reagent (Z)-ll (Eq. 91) none of the other diastereomers arising from Z- to E-isomerization is observed. 

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