Sulfur ylides cyclopropanation

The Corey-Chaykovsky reaction entails the reaction of a sulfur ylide, either dimethylsulfoxonium methylide (1, Corey s ylide, sometimes known as DMSY) or dimethylsulfonium methylide (2), with electrophile 3 such as carbonyl, olefin, imine, or thiocarbonyl, to offer 4 as the corresponding epoxide, cyclopropane, aziridine, or thiirane. ... 

Reagent-controlled asymmetric cyclopropanation is relatively more difficult using sulfur ylides, although it has been done. It is more often accomplished using chiral aminosulfoxonium ylides. Finally, more complex sulfur ylides (e.g. 64) may result in more elaborate cyclopropane synthesis, as exemplified by the transformation 65 66 ... 

Abstract The photoinduced reactions of metal carbene complexes, particularly Group 6 Fischer carbenes, are comprehensively presented in this chapter with a complete listing of published examples. A majority of these processes involve CO insertion to produce species that have ketene-like reactivity. Cyclo addition reactions presented include reaction with imines to form /1-lactams, with alkenes to form cyclobutanones, with aldehydes to form /1-lactones, and with azoarenes to form diazetidinones. Photoinduced benzannulation processes are included. Reactions involving nucleophilic attack to form esters, amino acids, peptides, allenes, acylated arenes, and aza-Cope rearrangement products are detailed. A number of photoinduced reactions of carbenes do not involve CO insertion. These include reactions with sulfur ylides and sulfilimines, cyclopropanation, 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions, and acyl migrations. 

Diazomalonic esters serve as intermediates for the synthesis of a wide variety of compounds including cyclopropanes, cyclo-propenes, cycloheptatrienes, sulfur ylides, lactones, and substituted malonates. ... 

A very convenient asymmetric synthesis of cyclopropane or epoxide systems developed by Johnson (184) is based on the use of chiral sulfur ylides as the agents that induce optical activity. Generally, this method consists of the asymmetric addition of a chiral sulfur ylide to the C=C or C=0 bond and subsequent cyclization of the addition product to form a chiral cyclopropane or epoxide system together with chiral sulfinamide. A wide range of chiral... 

Several other observations suggest that nucleophilic carbene complexes, similarly to, e.g., sulfur ylides, can cyclopropanate acceptor-substituted olefins by an addition-elimination mechanism. If, e.g., acceptor-substituted olefins are added to a mixture of a simple alkene and the metathesis catalyst PhWCl3/AlCl3, the metathesis reaction is quenched and small amounts of acceptor-substituted cyclopropanes can be isolated [34]. 

Sulfur ylides are among the most interesting carbon nucleophiles and their synthetic importance has been recently reviewed.One especially interesting use of these ylides is their application to the synthesis of cyclopropane derivatives using unsaturated oxazolones. For example, stabilized sulfur yhdes react with unsaturated oxazolones 629 via a Michael reaction to give oxazolone spirocyclopropanes 630 as shown in Scheme 7.202 and Table 7.46 (Fig. 7.57), whereas the less stabilized sulfur ylides give ring-opened products 631 as the major compounds (Scheme 7.202). ... 

Double-bond compounds that undergo the Michael reaction (5-17) can be converted to cyclopropane derivatives with sulfur ylides.1068 Among the most common of these is di-methyloxosulfonium methylide (108),l,l6, which is widely used to transfer CH2 to activated... 

Chiral cyclopropanes. Carrie el al.b l have developed a highly enantioselective synthesis of cyclopropanes from the aldehyde 2, in which the butadiene group is protected as the iron tricarhonyl complex. The complex (2) is resolved by the method of Kelly and Van Rheenan (5, 289-290), and the two optical isomers arc then converted separately into a cyclopropanealdehyde (5a and 5b) as formulated. A sulfur ylide such as (CH3)2S=CHCOOCH3 can be used in place of diazomethane for cyclopropanation. Optical yields are > 90%,... 

These reactions rapidly found wide use and success, and many other sulfur ylides have been prepared and exploited [194, 195, 203, 204]. Various experimental procedures are to be found in the detailed monograph by Trost and Melvin [204] for sulfonium salts, ylides, epoxidations and cyclopropanations. 

A number of attempts have been made to use optically active sulfur ylides to transfer the chirality of sulfur to carbon in the formation of epoxides and cyclopropanes. The results were somewhat disappointing. Thus, virtually no asymmetric induction was observed with the ylide (1) [475]. With the stabilized ylides (2), e.e. values in the range 7-43% were reported [476]. Better results were obtained with sulfonium ylides derived from Eliel oxathiane [477]. Optically active diaryl epoxides could be prepared under PTC in high yields and good e.e. values. 

Kinetic control and thermodynamic control account, respectively, for epoxide formation and cyclopropanation [204]. Various Michael acceptors have been converted to cyclopropane derivatives with sulfur ylides. Some of the reagents used to transfer CHCOR [456], CHCOOR [457], CHMe... 

Sulfur ylides are most frequently employed in this methodology. The cyclopropanations of Michael acceptors with arsenic252, selenium253 and tellurium ylides254 have also been... 

A limited number of other anionic species have been employed as Michael donors in tandem vicinal difunctionalizations. In a manner similar to sulfur ylides described above, phosphonium ylides can be used as cyclopropanating reagents by means of a conjugate addition-a-intramolecular alkylation sequence. Phosphonium ylides have been used with greater frequency261-263 than sulfur ylides and display little steric sensitivity.264 Phosphorus-stabilized allylic anions can display regiospecific 7-1,4-addition when used as Michael donors.265... 

Ylides based upon sulfur are the most generally useful in these cyclopropane-forming reactions.133 Early work in this area was done with the simple dimethyloxysulfonium methylide (9) derived from dimethyl sulfoxide. The even simpler dimethylsulfonium methylide (10) was studied at the same time as a reagent primarily for the conversion of carbonyl compounds into epoxides.134 Somewhat later, other types of sulfur ylides were developed, among which the nitrogen-substituted derivatives such as (11) are... 

Ylides of other elements have been used much less commonly than sulfur ylides in cyclopropanations. Rather, other ylides are better known for their uses in other types of reactions, the best example being the use of phosphonium ylides in the Wittig reaction with carbonyl compounds to give alkenes. Nonetheless, some cases of cyclopropanations have been reported with phosphonium ylides and the related arsenic derivatives. Examples are given in Table 9. 

The reaction of sulfur ylides with enones gives cyclopropanes. 

The reaction of optically active (l-diethoxyphosphoryl)vinyl p-tolyl sulfoxide (20) with sulfur ylides has provided the corresponding cyclopropanes (21) in high yields (g) (Scheme 10).52,53 With fully deuterated dimethyl(oxo)sulfonium methylide, (CD3)2 S(0)CD2, the cyclopropanation reaction occurred in a highly diastereoselective... 

In this chapter, we will review the use of ylides as enantioselective organocata-lysts. Three main types of asymmetric reaction have been achieved using ylides as catalysts, namely epoxidation, aziridination, and cyclopropanation. Each of these will be dealt with in turn. The use of an ylide to achieve these transformations involves the construction of a C-C bond, a three-membered ring, and two new adjacent stereocenters with control of absolute and relative stereochemistry in one step. These are potentially very efficient transformations in the synthetic chemist s arsenal, but they are also challenging ones to control, as we shall see. Sulfur ylides dominate in these types of transformations because they show the best combination of ylide stability [1] with leaving group ability [2] of the onium ion in the intermediate betaine. In addition, the use of nitrogen, selenium and tellurium ylides as catalysts will also be described. 

The first catalytic asymmetric cyclopropanation using an ylide as catalyst was reported by Aggarwal et al. in 1997 [95, 96]. Phenyl diazomethane was added slowly to a mixture containing sulfide 12, an enone and Rh2(OAc)4 (1 mol%). A sulfur ylide was generated in situ from the sulfide and phenyl diazomethane in the presence of the transition-metal catalyst (see Scheme 10.20), as in the epoxidations discussed earlier (see Section 10.2.1.3). 

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