Cycloaddition reactions Lewis acid catalyzed Diels—Alder

This chapter will mostly deal with the applications of the Lewis-acid-catalyzed Diels Alder reaction to organic synthesis and the influence of Lewis acids on reactivity, stereoselectivity and regioselectivity of the cycloadditions. 

Scheme 6.93 Organotungsten Lewis acid-catalyzed Diels-Alder cycloaddition reactions.

The chiral Lewis acid catalyzed cycloaddition of methacrolein 310 to cyclopentadiene predominantly affording exo cycloadduct 322 together with some 323 has been extensively investigated. The application of menthoxyaluminum dichloride (324) as the chiral catalyst in this reaction represents one of the earliest examples of a chiral Lewis acid catalyzed Diels-Alder reaction206 (equation 90). The authors confirmed their results in 1987, but the ee was revised from 72% to 57%207. 

Clifford and Rayner have reported enhanced selectivities for Lewis acid catalyzed Diels-Alder cycloadditions in sc C02 relative to organic solvents. It is well known that Lewis acids catalyze Diels-Alder reactions and can improve their rate and selectivity (Dell, 1998 Santelli, 1996). The endo exo product selectivity for the Sc(Otf)3-catalyzed reaction between cyclopenta-diene and alkyl acrylates (eq. 2.3) could be optimized to 24 1 by controlling the density of sc C02 (Clifford et al., 1997, 1998 Oakes et al., 1999), whereas in toluene the endo exo ratio was 10 1. 

Cycloadditions (Athene Five-Membered Cyclo-adduct) The levels of selectivity found for 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions are not as high as those obtained for Lewis acid-catalyzed Diels-Alder reactions. However, the 10,2-camphorsultam auxiliary can achieve synthetically useful levels of induction in these reactions, and this has been attributed to efficient enoyl conformational control by the sultam moiety leading to preferred C(a)-re face attack even in the absence of metal complexation. ... 

Much has been published on Lewis acid-catalyzed Diels-Alder reactions between the bidentate dienophile 3-acryloyl-l,3-oxazolidin-2-one and the prototypical diene component cyclopentadiene these afford the endo cycloaddition product with good selectivity. This reaction has become the prototype for two-point binding, Lewis acid catalyzed, asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions. For easier comparison, the data in Sch. 41 include. 

Similar applications of chiral titanium Lewis acid catalysts to asymmetric [2 + 2] cycloadditions, with up to nearly quantitative asymmetric induction, have employed 4-benzoquinones as additions and substituted styrene-type substrates11. In all of these asymmetric [2 + 2]-cvcload-dition reactions, the Lewis acid catalyst presumably is attached to peripheral functional groups and thus, similar to Lewis acid catalyzed Diels Alder reactions (see Section 1.5.8.3.5.4.), is only indirectly involved in the reaction course7. 

Menthol [(—)-l] has been used as a chiral ligand for aluminum in Lewis acid catalyzed Diels-Alder reactions with surprising success2 (Section D.l.6.1.1.1.2.2.1). The major part of its application is as a chiral auxiliary, by the formation of esters or ethers. Esters with carboxylic acids may be formed by any convenient esterification technique. Esters with saturated carboxylic acids have been used for the formation of enolates by deprotonation and subsequent addition or alkylation reactions (Sections D.l.1.1.3.1. and D.l.5.2.3.), and with unsaturated acids as chiral dienes or dienophiles in Diels-Alder reactions (Section D. 1.6.1.1.1.), as chiral dipolarophiles in 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions (Section D.l.6.1.2.1.), as chiral partners in /(-lactam formation by [2 + 2] cycloaddition with chlorosulfonyl isocyanate (SectionD.l.6.1.3.), as sources for chiral alkenes in cyclopropanations (Section D.l.6.1.5.). and in the synthesis of chiral allenes (Section B.I.). Several esters have also been prepared by indirect techniques, e.g.,... 

Lewis acids have been widely used to catalyze Diels-Alder reactions when thermal conditions were not efficient [43]. A limitation of the Lewis acid catalyzed Diels-Alder cycloaddition reaction has often been found to be due to the sensitivity of the substrates to the strongly acidic media. For instance, when considering the addition of phenylacetylene derivatives to 1-silyloxypyrrole, it was found that the Lewis acids (AICI3, BF3, TiCU) led to decomposition of starting materials, while the thermal processes afforded only negligible amounts of the desired cycloadduct [44]. The successful preparation of the cycloadduct product was achieved with lithium perchlorate in ether. This approach did not produce a very acidic reaction medium, but considerably lowered the LUMO pyrrole energy, almost as much as protonation by itself (Table 14). The final effect was that the reaction became a strongly LUMO diene controlled Diels-Alder reaction. 

In thermal and Lewis acid-catalyzed Diels-Alder cycloaddition reactions diene and dienophile react in a suprafacial concerted process predicted by the Woodward-... 

Synthesis of Chiral Auxiliaries. Their availability and crystalline nature has made camphor derivatives the precursors of choice for the design and synthesis of chiral auxiliaries. 10-Camphorsulfonyl chloride is the starting material for the synthesis of chiral auxiliaries (9)-(12) (eq 2). Sulfonamides (9) and (10) have been used as chiral auxiliaries in a number of reactions, e.g. the Lewis acid-catalyzed Diels-Alder reaction, the [3 + 2] cycloaddition of a nitrile oxide to an acrylate, and the stereoselective conjugate addition reaction of organocopper reagents to ci ,)3-unsaturated esters. ... 

The first reported use of In(III) salts as a catalyst in cycloaddition reactions was in the Diels-Alder reaction carried out in water. Loh et al. found that InCls has the same effects as most Lewis acids in the Diels-Alder reaction, that is, enhancements of facial select vities and reaction rates [172] (Figure 8.73). Reactions of various combinations of dienes (cyclic and noncyclic) and dienophiles were reported to give high facial selectivities and excellent yields. The ab initio calculations done by Yamabe et al for the Lewis acid catalyzed Diels-Alder reaction showed that InCh catalyzed reaction had similar geometries to that of AICI3 catalyzed reactions [173]. 

Although cycloadditions and rearrangements often proceed without catalysts, the selectivity of the reaction and the reactivity of very reluctant molecules can be enhanced by a Lewis acid. The Diels-Alder reaction can be performed at enhanced reaction rate in ionic liquids with the addition of ZnCl2 (eq. (4)) [42]. The Claisen rearrangement was also reported to be superior if catalyzed by Sc(OTf)3 in ionic liquids [43]. 

The theoretical investigations of Lewis acid-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions are also very limited and only papers dealing with cycloaddition reactions of nitrones with alkenes have been investigated. The Influence of the Lewis acid catalyst on these reactions are very similar to what has been calculated for the carbo- and hetero-Diels-Alder reactions. The FMOs are perturbed by the coordination of the substrate to the Lewis acid giving a more favorable reaction with a lower transition-state energy. Furthermore, a more asynchronous transition-structure for the cycloaddition step, compared to the uncatalyzed reaction, has also been found for this class of reactions. 

Lewis-acid catalyzed inverse electron-demand Diels-Alder reactions between conjugated carbonyl compounds and simple alkenes and enolethers also allow dihydropyranes to be prepared. SnCU-Catalyzed cycloaddition of... 

It is believed that clay minerals promote organic reactions via an acid catalysis [2a]. They are often activated by doping with transition metals to enrich the number of Lewis-acid sites by cationic exchange [4]. Alternative radical pathways have also been proposed [5] in agreement with the observation that clay-catalyzed Diels-Alder reactions are accelerated in the presence of radical sources [6], Montmorillonite K-10 doped with Fe(III) efficiently catalyzes the Diels-Alder reaction of cyclopentadiene (1) with methyl vinyl ketone at room temperature [7] (Table 4.1). In water the diastereoselectivity is higher than in organic media in the absence of clay the cycloaddition proceeds at a much slower rate. 

The Lewis acid-catalyzed 1,3-migration of divinyl esters allows the formation of 1,3-butadienes, which can undergo cycloaddition. In this respect, Dai and coworkers described a rearrangement of the divinyl alkoxyacetate 1-203 followed by a Diels-Alder reaction with a dienophile such as maleic anhydride 1-204 in the presence of catalytic amounts of Ln(fod)3 to produce 1-205 in up to 61 % yield (Scheme 1.47) [53],... 

The reaction of nitrostyrene with cyclopentadiene gives the normal Diels-Alder adduct. However, the Lewis acid-catalyzed cycloaddition affords two isomeric nitronates, syn and anti in an 80-to-20 ratio. The major isomer is derived from an endo transition state. The preference of yy/i-fused cycloadducts can be understood by considering secondary orbital interactions (Eq. 8.95).152... 

Microwave heating has also been employed for performing retro-Diels-Alder cycloaddition reactions, as exemplified in Scheme 6.94. In the context of preparing optically pure cross-conjugated cydopentadienones as precursors to arachidonic acid derivatives, Evans, Eddolls, and coworkers performed microwave-mediated Lewis acid-catalyzed retro-Diels-Alder reactions of suitable exo-cyclic enone building blocks [193, 194], The microwave-mediated transformations were performed in dichloromethane at 60-100 °C with 0.5 equivalents of methylaluminum dichloride as catalyst and 5 equivalents of maleic anhydride as cyclopentadiene trap. In most cases, the reaction was stopped after 30 min since continued irradiation eroded the product yields. The use of short bursts of microwave irradiation minimized doublebond isomerization. 

Because of their previous findings that a,/l-unsaturated thioesters were more reactive than their ester counterparts in Diels-Alder reactions85, Hart and coworkers86 performed a systematic study of the cycloaddition reactions of a,/l-unsaturated thioesters and a,ft-unsaturated selenoesters with several dienes. Thermal reactions were compared with Lewis acid catalyzed reactions at room temperature (equation 28 and Table 2). The results clearly demonstrated that use of a Lewis acid enhanced the regioselectivity (entries 1 vs 2, 3 vs 4, 5 vs 6 and 7 vs 8) as well as the endo (with respect to the thioester or selenoester group) selectivity (entries 5 vs 6 and 7 vs 8). 

Lewis acids such as zinc chloride, boron trifluoride, aluminum chloride, and diethylaluminum chloride catalyze Diels-Alder reactions.8 The catalytic effect is the result of coordination of the Lewis acid with the dienophile. The complexed dienophile is more electrophilic and more reactive toward electron-rich dienes. The mechanism of the cycloaddition is still believed to be concerted, and high stereoselectivity is observed.9 10 Lewis acid catalysts also usually increase the regioselectivity of the reaction. 

The highly ordered cyclic transition state of the Diels-Alder reaction permits design of reaction parameters which lead to a preference between the transition states leading to diastereomeric or enantiomeric adducts. (See Part A, Section 2.3, to review the principles of diastereoselectivity and enantioselectivity.) One way to achieve this is to install a chiral auxiliary.56 The cycloaddition proceeds to give two diastereomeric products which can be separated and purified. Because of the lower temperature required and the greater stereoselectivity observed in Lewis acid-catalyzed reactions, the best enantioselectivity is often observed in catalyzed reactions. Chiral esters and amides of acrylic acid are particularly useftd because the chiral auxiliary can be easily recovered upon hydrolysis of the adduct to give the enantiomerically pure carboxylic acid. 

The thermal reaction produced 5 and 6 in a 3 2 ratio but the Lewis acid-catalyzed reaction gave a 1 1 ratio. We could not separate the two cycloadducts, but based the indicated constitution on analysis of the mass spectrum and lH NMR spectrum of the mixture of the two compounds. The stereochemistry was assigned on the basis that the Diels-Alder reaction is normally suprafacial-suprafacial18 and that for other cycloaddition reactions of levoglucosenone (2) the addition anti to the 1,6-anhydro bridge is favored.13 15... 

CONTENTS Preface, Mark Lautens. Photocyclization and Photocycloaddition Reactions of 4- and 2-Pyrones, Frederick G. West. Intramolecular [4+3] Cycloaddition Reactions, Michael Harmata. Lewis Acid Catalyzed [2+2] Cycloaddition Reactions of Vinyl Sulfides and Their Analogues Catalytic Asymmetric [2+2] Cycloaddition Reactions, Koichi Narasaka and Yujiro Hayashi. Vinylboranes as Diels-Alder Dienophiles, Daniel A. Singleton. Preparation and Exo-Selective [4+2] Cycloaddition Reactions of Cobaloxime-Substituted 1,3-Dienes, P... 

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